


Cabin in The Forest

by NightOwlsTeaParty



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Echotale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Anxiety Attacks, Artwork is posted up, F/M, Female Chara (Undertale), Male Frisk (Undertale), Oc fox, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Reader is a self insert because it was easier to type, Reader is named, Reader isn't quite human, Reverse Harem, Skeletons faced the no mercy runs So many times, Social Anxiety, Soft Chara (Undertale), now official, oc granddad, oc mom - Freeform, protag kids are 16-17 and kids with the chara role look about 20, reader has animal companion, reader is female, takes place a week after monsters were released
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2019-10-14 10:48:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17507162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightOwlsTeaParty/pseuds/NightOwlsTeaParty
Summary: You had always lived in a little cabin with a little view of MT. Ebbot, with little to no visitors. Everyday was always the same routine, paint, talk to some animal friends, or read. Read, read, read. You were surrounded by every kind of book you can imagine.How you wish something new would ha-- Wait, was that a knock on the door? Why are there three skeletons at your door? And why are your grandfather's journals so important to them?(TO BE REWRITTEN)





	1. Knock Knock, Who's There?

**Author's Note:**

> So, the idea for this story came to me when I was listening to Imagination Forest by Jin. I had not listened to Kagepro in the longest time and I am on a skeleton reverse harem kick, so, yeah. That was how this story was born. 
> 
> A fair warning, I am not used to writing in the second person and sorta just gave up in the 4th chapter onward. Sorry about that. Furthermore, the reader is a self insert to make typing easier, I'm gonna make a poll by chapter 3 or so, if you guys want me to omit the descriptions and name.
> 
> Another fair warning, this is my first time writing an Undertale fic, so I apologize if any of the characters seem out of character.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You had always lived in a little cabin with a little view of MT. Ebbot, with little to no visitors. Everyday was always the same routine, paint, talk to some animal friends, or read. Read, read, read. You were surrounded by every kind of book you can imagine._
> 
> _How you wish something new would ha-- Wait, was that a knock on the door? Why are there three skeletons at your door? And why are your grandfather's journals so important to them?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the idea for this story came to me when I was listening to Imagination Forest by Jin. I had not listened to Kagepro in the longest time and I am on a skeleton reverse harem kick, so, yeah. That was how this story was born.
> 
> A fair warning, I am not used to writing in the second person and sorta just gave up in the 4th chapter onward. Sorry about that. Furthermore, the reader is a self insert to make typing easier, I'm gonna make a poll by chapter 3 or so, if you guys want me to omit the descriptions and name.
> 
> Another fair warning, this is my first time writing an Undertale fic, so I apologize if any of the characters seem out of character.
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

Today is just like any other, with the shining sun and sweet, summer breeze. The comforting, warm tea sits on the table near an open window as a simple breeze gently caresses your face and long, black hair from the seat you sat while you reread the book that was cradled in your small hands.

 _Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS._ _  
_ _One day, war broke out between the two races._ _  
_ _After a long battle, the humans were victorious._  
They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.

_Many years later…_

_EBOTT, 201X_

_Legends say those who climb the mountain never return._

You were giddy with excitement as you continue to reread your favorite book. Your mother would always read you this story of Humans and Monsters before bed but even years later, you were always excited to go back to this book. On the next page, there was a black and white artist rendition of MT. Ebott, you quickly glance out the window next to you to see the same mountain in the distance. There’s nothing like seeing the actual thing with your own eyes.

You let out a quiet sigh as you placed the book on the tabletop near your tea. Just another quiet day with not much to do, your mind begins to wander. Were those stories even real? Even the thought of it seems too far fetched, these books are just fiction after all, right? You look back out your window to the mountain with a longing gaze. As much as you would like to take a step out of this dusty house, you made a very important **promise**.

_“Alice, please promise me that you will never stray too far from this house. The outside world is not very nice to... Our kind…”_

You shook your head at the memory, attempting to distract yourself. Suddenly, you hear the sweet song from a bird on your window sill.

“Oh my, hello there little darling, are you lost?” You asked the tiny sparrow with a small smile. The bird chirped at you, as if saying no, you giggled at the tiny creature’s enthusiasm.

“Then, you must be hungry and searching for a break, aren’t you, dear?” The little sparrow excitedly tweeted as you stood up to look for the leftover seed pouch sitting in one of the nearby bookshelves. You poured some of the seeds in your hand and offered the food to the tiny bird, to which it almost immediately jumped into your palm for. You could only giggle more at the silly little thing.

“Oh my, you are quite hungry, aren’t you?” Only the bird’s happy little tweets could be given as a response. Just as quickly as the bird came, it left, leaving you in your lonesome once more. You silently place the pouch back on the shelf, looking through any other book that could grab your attention along the way. You saw your paint tubes on the ground and placed them back on the shelf so you don’t trip. You randomly grab a book on another shelf to read and see its cover.

_The Story of Lady Medusa_

You threw the book to the ground immediately after recognizing its cover. That book had always left a bad taste in your mouth. Snakes were not… Your closest friends. You quickly shifted to another shelf, not sparing a second glance at the book. You start to curl yourself into a ball, arms wrapped around your knees as you start to mutter to yourself.

“Everyday is always the same. Why can’t I have been born normal? Maybe then, mama would have--” And just as if someone heard your question, you heard a voice and knock at the front door for the first in a very, very long time.

“Hey, uh, is there anyone living here? My brother and, uh, cousins are kinda new here and need some directions.” The voice was very laid back and low sounding and multiple voices could have been heard with the one who spoke up. The moment you heard the knock, you stood up and knocked over your cup, spilling the tea over the wooden table. Oh god, it feels as if your heart is in your throat and it is racing eighty miles an hour. Only your panic thoughts muddling your mind.

 _Who in the world could it be? What do I do?_ **_What do I do??_ ** _How did anyone find this place? It has literally been_ **_years_ ** _since anyone stopped by._

Suddenly, you heard your mother’s words whisper in your ear and old memories flooded your mind.

 _“Please don’t ever go outside alone. There are people out there who_ **_will_ ** _try to hurt you. And promise me to_ **_never_ ** _look them in the eyes, please Alice._ **_Promise me._ ** _” Mother said with a saddened look in her eyes just before heading over to the nearby town with Father. You picked up “The Story of Lady Medusa”,  it’s always the same with anyone who seems strange, they’re the villain, they get defeated, and the hero takes the spoils. Your eyebrows furrowed as you placed the book back in the shelf and picked up the hand mirror, looking at your violet eyes, flashing red for a split second. Maybe people like you just weren’t meant to find happiness._

**_The sound of breaking mirror filled the otherwise empty room._ **

The knocking from the door clears you from your trance, successfully making you flinch at the unfamiliar noise. You attempted you run as far away as you could from the noise, only to trip over the book you had thrown down previously. As you process what had happened, you heard the old creaking of  the front door, looking over, you were filled with anxieties. You can feel the tears prick from your eyes as your memories filled your head.

_“You need to protect yourself… The world out here… Is dangerous...” The sound of a weeping child could be heard throughout the forest._

With nowhere else to hide, you covered your eyes with your hands. Shaking as the footsteps came inside the house. The voices sounded sounded surprised as you can feel the stares piercing your core.

“Huh, it’s just a human kid. Hey, Stretch, you sure you felt a monster’s soul calling for help?” The voice from before asked, wait. Did they just say monster? Soul? What are they going on about?

“Yeah, that was definitely a monster soul that I felt.” Another laid back voice answered, your shaking worsened knowing there was more than one person in the house. It seems the voices took notice.

“ ‘Ey, Vanilla. That human there looks like she’s really spooked outta her **skin**.” A gruff voice said as the footsteps came closer, you curled up into yourself more and more. Please don’t get any closer. Please don’t get any closer. Please don’t get any closer.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry. We’re not gonna hurt you, why don’t you look up? Promise we don’t look **that** scary. Except, maybe Red.”

“ Asshole! I ain’t that fuckin’ scary!” The outburst only caused you shake more.

“Nice one Red, scaring a little girl. Really keepin’ it real classy.”

“Shut up, ashtray! You ain’t any better lookin’!” You could hear the person nearby kneel down in front of you to get to your level.

“Sorry about that, Red’s not the best with humans. But, I promise you he’s just a big softie underneath, so you don’t have to hide your face.” The gentle, low voice started to calm you down from your panic enough for you to weep out your words.

“P-please don’t look into my eyes… I-I could hurt you.” You could hear a snort from one of the guys.

“Doll, judgin’ by how much yer shakin’ right now, I don’t think you can even hurt a damn fly... What? She looks so damn frail! If you touched her, she would prolly shatter.” The voice smugly states. Okay, that kinda hurt, even if it was sort of true.

“Hey, kiddo. That’s ok, there’s nothing to be scared of now.” You suddenly felt a gentle gloved hand patted you on your back, causing you to slowly place your hands to your lap as the tears started to flow and a hint of a sweet little chill crawling the area he patted. “There ya go, kid. You look better when **eye** can see you.” You flushed at the comment as your eyes adjusted to the light. Once fully adjusted, you were faced to face with three, smiling skeletons. Your mind was having trouble processing at the situation handed to you.

“Man, the doll’s eyes look like they’re ‘bout ready to pop outta her **skull**!” The one with a furried jacket and gold tooth laughed.

“I take it we’re the first monsters you’ve ever seen? Sorry for **rattling your bones** , hun.” The tallest one in an orange pull over sweater shrugged, unwrapping a lollipop and placing it in his mouth-- err, jaw?

“ **Tibia** honest, we weren’t expecting to see a _human_ here, we thought there was a special monster ‘round these parts.” The skeleton that patted you, who wore an open blue hoodie, admitted. Were… Were they saying puns at you? As you finally processed what was happening, everything around you faded into darkness as you heard the skeletons’ surprised gasps at your sudden fainting.

“Woah, kid! Kid!”

Oh dear, this day is certainly not turning out to be normal one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com) (Headcannons are currently open)


	2. A Promise Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Please don’t ever go outside alone. There are people out there who will try to hurt you. And promise me to never look them in the eyes, please Alice. Promise me.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, an update schedule, something i need to be more consistent about. I decided to update this story every tuesday since that is my only day off of from school this semester and if I don't update then I will make sure to do so as soon as possible.
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

_It was dark. Not quite pitch black that you could not see your hands in front of you, but enough that you can’t see ahead of you. Your breathing starts to get faster as you try to find a way out, desperate for any sort of light source. Your breathing starts to become irregular as you erratically looked back and forth, as if there would be a change if you looked again. Suddenly, an almost melodic, calming voice entered your mind, instantly calming the nerves you had previously felt. It felt as if the voice embraced your very being._

_“Oh my dear, you need not to worry. No one here will harm you, however, it is not quite time for you to meet us. You will need to head back now, you do not want them worrying too much now…_ **_Alice._ ** _”_

Your eyes shot open, only to be met with three worried skeletal faces, well, two worried and one amused face. Ah, that’s right, you had just fainted.

“Hey there, kiddo. How you feeling? You really scared us outta our **skin** back there.” The skeleton in blue chuckled as you sat up, rubbing your tired eyes.

“ ‘m fine…” You managed to mumble out.

“Sorry about the sudden intrusion, hun. Seein’ three big skeletons out your door musta really **rattled your bones** more than we thought it would.” You shook your head at the response, somehow getting raised eyebrows from the three of them.

“I jus’ don’t get anyone coming in general.” You started to fiddle with your fingers, a light pink dusting your cheeks from all the attention. They don't seem like mean monsters from what you can tell, they did put you in your bed after passing out.

“Well, that ‘splains how damn jumpy you were when we arrived.”

“Hey, uh, how about we introduce ourselves? We _did_ come into your place uninvited. I’m Sans and, uh, sorry for breaking into your place like this.” You looked up from your fidgeting hands at the blue skeleton next to your bed.

“ ‘m Stretch.” The tallest one yawned, reaching his pocket for another lollipop.

“ Name’s Red, toots. Real nice of ya to be **fallin’** for us, real flatterin’.” The final one smirked, showing off his sharp teeth. Your face was as matching Red’s namesake now, you can feel the embarrassment hover over you.

“Alice…” You finally mumbled out.

“So, Kid, gotta ask, why’re you out here all alone? You look kinda young to be here all alone.”

“ ‘m not that young. I just... Can’t leave this house.” You puffed your cheeks at his comment, but the not leaving part wasn’t a lie.

“Whaddya mean you can’t leave this house? It ain’t like there was a barrier ‘round this place. You can prolly leave anytime you wanted, sweetheart.” Red chuckled as Sans gave him a look of annoyance, it’s strange how expressive their faces were for skeletons.

“Huh, for a human, you sure have a buncha texts ‘bout monsters,” Stretch said, looking at the educational bookcase. When did he get over there?

“Not to mention the food seems to have some magic embedded.” The tallest skeleton said as he opened one of the wrapped truffles from the candy bowl and popped it into his jaw. His empty sockets felt like they were boring holes into your very being. Sans’s eye lights disappeared for a split second only to reappear when he looked at you.

“There’s more to it than **that** , right?”  You looked at his skeletal hand as your expression gave him his answer. You shifted in the suffocating atmosphere as you felt the judgment from their eye sockets.

“Well what do we have here?”

“What’s the matter Stretch?”

“Looks like there’s a whole written encyclopedia of every kinda monster in here.” The shorter two quickly over to Stretch, looking at the open book in his hands.

“Well, whaddya know, it’s even got skeletons in here.”

“Hey, Alice.” The way Sans said your name instantly sent a sweet chill over your skin as his voice became sickeningly dark compared to his comforting gentle tone from before.  You looked up only to be face to face with dark, empty sockets.

“Who **are** you exactly? Most humans nowadays don't have a whole encyclopedia 'bout us.” You felt the shiver run up and down your spine, as the lump in your throat made it difficult to speak. You instinctively placed your hands on your eyes again.

“I-I-I’m myself. Th-the book you’re looking at w-was one of my grandfather’s old journal. T-that’s all I know about it.” Your heart was practically heating out of your chest as Sans gained his eyes back.

“Your old, old man, huh?” You felt a gentle hand on yours, slowly guiding your hands back on your lap.

“Do you mind if we gave you a quick CHECK?”

“A-a CHECK? What’s that?” You tilted your head in confusion.

“Jus’ gonna take a look at yer status an’ see is yer a threat or not, doll.” Red said just before getting shoved by Stretch, who continued to read through your grandfather’s journals. Wait, if  **you** were the threat? But, they were the one's who waltzed into **your** home!

“We’re just looking to see if there’s any weird things going on with you, is that fine with you kid?” Well, if it's like one of those little check ups mother would do after you played with the animals, then there shouldn’t be any harm in that, you agreed. Sans, somehow, hummed as his eye glowed a bright blue, giving you a hard stare. You looked away nervously, is it too late to say no?

**_“Alice”_ **

**_LV: 1_ **

**_EXP: 0_ **

**_HP: 10/10_ **

**_ATK: ???_ **

**_DEF: 20_ **

**_“Lived in this house all her life.  Would probably have a panic attack if a human got stood near her.”_ **

Sans’s eyebrows (bonebrow?) furrowed, whatever he saw probably only made him more confused. Why couldn’t you have been normal? Both of Sans’s pupils lit up, popping himself out of thoughts.

“How would you like to come with us?” Sans finally said, excuse me? Red suddenly dragged Sans away from you to have a private conversation between the three of them. You could only stare at the strange skeletons in your house. Maybe you could just--

_It’s rude to stare at others too much, dear._

“Yes, mama.” You quietly mumbled looking back down at your fiddling hands as your remembered your mother’s scolding words. You have to control it. You have to control it. _You have to control it_. Or else they will get **hurt**.

“Hey there, hun.” You looked up to see Stretch near your bed. Done with the discussion already?

“ ‘llo…”

“So, uh, how does moving out sound to _you_?” What? Just like that? You vehemently shook your head.

“N-no! I-I’d definitely be intruding on your space! I du-don’t want to leech of you...” Stretch raised his eyebrows only to let out a low laugh, you can feel your cheeks heating up, why did the sound of his laugh make your chest flutter?

“ _That’s_ what you’re worried about? Hun, we’ve got more than enough room at our place. Don’t worry about that. Plus…” Stretch knelt down on one knee by your bedside, lowering his height to have a better look at you. “Seems like your old man got some information that’s pretty important to our project. We’ll even bring all your stuff, least we could do.” He shrugged, awaiting your answer.

Grandpa’s journals were that important to them? Half of those books had a whole buncha weird numbers and symbols, not to mention super long words that you couldn’t even find the definitions for. It all kind of looked like nonsense to you. But, it would be nice to finally see the world like you always wanted to. This could be your chance!

 _“Please don’t ever go outside alone. There are people out there who_ **_will_ ** _try to hurt you. And promise me to_ **_never_ ** _look them in the eyes, please Alice._ **_Promise me._ ** _”_

The sound of your mother’s voice echoed through your mind, you made a **promise.** Stretch could see the conflicting emotions on your face and peeped up once more.

“You don’t have to take up the offer, it just… Seemed like it’s real lonely being all the way over here on your own.” It… Really is. The forest animals would come say hello to you from time to time, especially this one little fox who used to visit you all the time. But not as often anymore, they all seem busy with their own families… Family. You could only stay silent to Stretch’s statement. He let out a sigh and just as he was about to stand up, the words suddenly started to come out before you could stop yourself.

“I-I wanna go with you all!” W-why did you say that?! Oh god, oh god, they’re probably just going to kick you out of there by next week for being so useless or annoying! Your cheeks practically glowed from your embarrassing little stunt as you quickly shifted your eyes back to your lap. But, you only heard the skeletal man chuckle.

“Man, you actually had me worried you there, hun. Welp, let’s go get you situated.” Suddenly, you felt your whole body being lifted from your bed, woah WOAH, is it really necessary to carry you like this? His touch sent a familiar shiver up your spine, just who are they?

“A-are we leaving right **now**??”

“Well, we gotta get out all your books, is there anything else you need that we gotta carry?”

“If it’s no trouble, c-can we visit my mom before we leave?” He raised a bone brow.

“Sure, but I don’t think I saw her on the way here.” You shook your head as you pointed to the back of the house.

“She’s j-just in the backyard. Also, could you p-place me down please? There’s an important book that I need to bring.” He nodded as he plopped you back on your feet and you started running to the fireplace and removed the painting to reveal a secret compartment. The only thing inside was one of grandpa’s journal however, it was locked with its key just underneath the book. You took off your necklace with your house’s key attached to add the journal’s key to the string and placed it back around your neck. You look back at the group of skeletons only to see all of your books already gone along with Sans and Red. Were they outside already? You didn’t even hear their footsteps.

“You ready, hun?” Stretch said, already next to you.

“Whatcha got there?” You fumbled a bit with the book in your hands before showing him the cover. The front had little rips and tears and had child like drawings near the bottom left corner of you and your mother with the text: “My Dear Family” handwritten in cursive at the top center.

“It’s another one of grandpa’s book. But this one is really special to me.” You replied as you hugged the book closely to your chest.

“Issat so? Well, looks like everything here’s been taken care of by the others. Now all we gotta do is convincing your mom to come too, right?” Stretch said, already heading to the backyard door with you attempting to keep up by his side, how is he so fast? You let out a noise of disagreement.

“That would be impossible.”

“Huh? Now why’s that? She got a thing against monsters or somethin’?” Just as Stretch opened the door, he was faced with a little clearing and right at the center was it.

**Mother’s grave.**

You knelt down in front of the grave as Stretch silently stood behind you

“Hey, mama. I’m sorry for breaking the promise that we made. But, I’ll visit you whenever possible! I’ll make sure of it!” Suddenly, you heard a rustle in the bushes and something bolted straight at the two of you! You shut your eyes as you tried to block yourself with your arms, prepared for the feeling of impact. You suddenly heard a familiar growl and snarl, your eyes shot up to whatever was making those noises only to see a familiar white morph fox, enveloped in an orange glow as he floated. You looked back at Stretch to see his right socket glow a bright orange and right arm raised.

“You alright there, hun?” You gave a confused nod as you looked back at the fox, wait was that--

“Koko!” You stood up and ran to the floating, snarling fox.

“Kid, I don’t think that’s a-- Ok.” You wrapped your arms around the little creature to help slowly calm it down, gently stroking its head. You looked back at the little canine in your arms, the orange glow no longer surrounding him.

“Koko, where have you been? I haven’t seen you since those mean people came...”  The fox gave you a guilt ridden look before taking a breath.

 _“I’m sorry for running away like that Alice, I couldn’t face you again after abandoning you like that. If I didn’t run away like that, maybe your mother would have…”_ You shook your head at his words.

“It’s not your fault! If anything, it was me. I should have been paying more attention.”

_“You were just a kid! None of that was your fault, it’s those terrible humans. This is why I hate them so much, they take everything away!”_

“Koko…” You held the small fox close to your chest as he started to snarl again once he noticed Stretch.

 _“And who’s that? Is this bastard holding you hostage or something?”_ You gasp at the tone of voice Koko was using.

“Language! And no, he’s not doing anything bad to me, his name is Stretch. He’s helping me move out.”

 _“_ **_Move?!_ ** _That sad sack of bones is taking you away from us?! How dare he!”_ You kept a firm grip on Koko so he doesn’t attempt to attack the skeleton, Koko lets out growls and struggles all the while.

“Hey, uh, kiddo? You feeling alright there?” You looked back at Stretch only to be faced with surprised eyes when you turned back. You looked behind you, well there isn’t anything there, and turned back to Stretch who took a small step back. What was wrong with him?

“Stretch? Are you alright? You don’t look so well.” You took a step forward as he stepped back, giving you a slight glare.

“Alice. Were your eyes always red?”


	3. Red Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Grandpa, just what exactly were you? And why are your books so important to these skeletons anyway? … Will I end up like mama if I do use them?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have decided that I will make the poll of making the reader have a name or not in chapter four so, look forward to that i suppose.
> 
> Thank you for all the wonderful comments that I have received though!  
> Sorry this chapter is a bit on the short side, I thought it's best to have the reader settle into the place first, and meet everyone later. Since my classes are cancelled tomorrow, I may upload the 4th chapter early
> 
> I made a tumblr for any Undertale stuff I do, so if you wanna ask me any questions and stuff, head here:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

Did he just say your eyes were red?! Quickly, you tried to cover your eyes with a free hand and held the growling Koko with the other.

“P-please don’t look in my eyes!” You quickly shouted.

“You said that last time too, and I know enough about humans to know that eye colors don’t just change like that. Now, kid. You gotta tell me, just what **are** you exactly?” You lowered the hand that covered your eyes as your gaze strayed to your feet.

“I… Don’t quite know either. From all the books I’ve read, not one ever had the possibility of my mother existing let alone me.”  Koko had long stopped struggling and his expression was one of frustration. Stretch let out a sigh, walking to you with your grandfather’s journal in hand. Hesitantly, you grabbed the book with your free hand.

“Your eyes aren’t red anymore, by the way.” You looked up into his glowing pupils. Thinking about it now, he was a good foot and a half taller than you. It felt strange having to crane your neck up to meet someone’s gaze again. Actually, it was strange to just see a person in general.

“Let’s meet with the others, you can bring your little foxy buddy with you too. Could you close your eyes for a sec? We’re gonna take a shortcut.” You instantly obeyed as Stretch placed a bony hand over Koko’s eyes, who started growling again from the contact, and another hand over yours. You felt everything around you stop for a split second as Stretch guided you, no wind, no grass, nothing. It reminded you of the dream you had when you passed out, except Stretch was with you and somehow it put your heart at ease. Like when you heard that man’s voice in the dream, even though you don’t remember what he said you could still feel how soothing his voice was during your panic attack.

“You can open em now. Unless you wanna stay this close to me the whole time. **Eye** wouldn’t mind that.” Your eyes shot open to soft orange fabric, when had you gotten this close to him?! You practically ran backwards from the shock, bumping into someone in the process, almost falling backwards into the mystery person’s chest.

“Oh, woah there kiddo, no need to **fall** for me like that, all you had to do was ask.” You turned around to come faced with a familiar skeleton in a blue sweater. It was Sans! Now that he stood in front of you, he was actually a head taller than you, he was so short compared to Stretch that he seemed a bit shorter. Granted, everyone would look short compared to Stretch. You took a step back so you weren’t invading his personal space. He noticed Koko in your arms, who was practically pouting at this point.

“And who’s this little buddy?”

“This is Koko. Don’t be rude and say hello to the nice monster, Koko.” You scolded the fox as he made a grimace simply at the thought.

_“Alice, I don’t think that’s possible.”_

“Koko, what do you mean?” Koko only let out a whining noise as a response to which you frowned. Why was he acting all weird all of a sudden?

“Hey, there kid. Everything alright there?” You glanced up to Sans’s confused eyelights before quickly looking back down and nodded your head.

“Y-yes, please don’t mind Koko, he’s just kind of shy. I’m sure he’ll warm up to you sooner or later!” You looked around to take in your surroundings. Oh my, this house was absolutely huge! The room you were currently in looked to be just the living room.

“Let’s take ya to your room for now, it’s been a long day, hun. We’ll introduce ya to everyone tomorrow morning, alright?” Stretch said as he placed his hands on your shoulders to guide you to your new room, you can feel your face heat up at the physical contact. As you two made your way to the second floor, you two passed by quite a few rooms, there had to be at least ten bedrooms on this floor alone.

“A buncha the rooms are empty cause a some of us decided to move out but we still left the names on just in case they came by to visit or somethin’.” Well, that certainly explains all the eccentric signs on each door. You two went up another set of stairs to your final destination, the attic, Stretch flicked the light switch to reveal the room. The room was quite spacious and already had all of your paint tubes and bookshelves, in order too! You set the journal on a nearby table and Koko on the ground, who only shook off the dust on his fur and stood close by your legs. The large space had a large window that had the whole view of the backyard that was filled to the brim with various different flowers in every color that you could imagine and there was a second window just above the bed with a strange lump laying on top. Wait what? Your eyes wandered to large bed on the left side of the room, it seems that the three of you weren’t the only ones here. There was a large sleeping form with a black, furred jacket similar to Red but much longer, much like a trench coat, the hood was up, covering the figure’s face and near the end of the coat looked to be a furry tail, was it another monster? Stretch let out a sigh, recognizing the large lump on the bed, and walked by the bed to wake it up.

“Hey Slim, get up, this ain’t your room.” The lump, apparently called Slim, only groaned and shuffled to the side. Stretch in turn shook his head as he attempted to try to wake up the lazy monster. Cautiously, you walked over to Stretch to observe the new monster, now that you had a closer view of them, they appeared to be Stretch’s height.

“If you don’t get up, I’ll tell Black about how you skipped training to go to Muffet’s.” And with a blink of an eye, the monster immediately sat up from their sleeping position and faced the other skeleton with a bone chilling glare, pun not intended, which gave you a good view of the figure’s face underneath the furred hood. It was another skeleton, however he had a gold tooth like Red, albeit smaller, and has little chips and nicks on parts of his face, almost as if they were scars. Were they from a fight? The new skeleton had seemed to notice you and your staring and gave you a sultry smirk.

“ ‘Ey there, sugar plum. You mus’ be the new girly comin’ to live with us. You likin’ what ya’ see?” Slim asked, your face almost instantly flushed at the question as you looked down at your feet in embarrassment, your hands fiddling with the end of your clothes. Slim seemed pleased at the sight of your ashamed state. Suddenly, the darker skeleton stood in front of you and you felt a bony hand on your chin, guiding your gaze to his face.

“The name’s Slim, sugar plum. What name do I pair this cute lil’ face with?”U-uh? Unused to the skin to ski- er, bone contact, you started to stammer and your face somehow became even redder than before. The look in Slim’s eye sockets seem to appear more amused as you struggled with speaking. Luckily for you, Stretch grabbed Slim’s hand, separating the contact between the two of you. You felt relief, but at the same time, there was the tiniest feeling of disappointment from the separation.

“Her name’s Alice. She’s gonna be living with us from now on, so no funny business. Same goes for your “Lord” and the hot topic duo.” The darker skeleton still had a sparkle of amusement despite just being scolded.

“I don’ think I asked ya’, carrot. You jealous lil’ mama over here’s talkin’ to another guy?”

“I’m not jealous, I just don’t want you scaring her.”

“Dunno, looked like she was enjoying it ta me, ain’t that right sugar ?”

“U-uhm… I-I uh.” Just before you could embarrass yourself further, a boisterous voice came from downstairs.

“MUTT GET THE HELL DOWN HERE ALREADY!” The voice sounded absolutely livid while Slim seem to let out a low chuckle.

“That’s my cue, darlin’. See ya’ around.” The skeleton said as he left, but not before quickly pressing his teeth to your cheek. Was… Was that supposed to be a peck?! Koko was growling and trying to bite the tall skeleton who only ignored the vulpin. Your face was practically glowing at this point as Stretch glared at the door where Slim left. Are the rest of your new house mates as flirtatious as him?? You don’t think you’ll last too long if that’s the case.

“Sorry about that, hun. You ‘kay?” Stretch’s question pulled you out of your thoughts and you rapidly nodded your head, still nervous from the interaction. The skeleton let out a chuckle.

“Guess that answers that. This is where you’ll be stayin’ from now on, hope this is fine with you, kid.” You gave him the brightest smile, you’re just happy to finally be able to explore the world! It doesn’t matter what room you get.

“Of course! Thank you so much for letting me stay with you and your family!” Luckily for Stretch, you didn’t notice the dim, orange glow that heated up his cheekbones.

“It’s no prob, kiddo. Glad you’re satisfied. **Tibia** honest, I thought you’d hate it, being stuck in the attic I mean.” You giggled at his pun as you shook your head.

“ I’m perfectly fine here, thank you for letting me stay with you all.”

“Well, get some rest. You must be tired to **bone** from everything that happened.” You gave him a little hum in agreement just before he headed to the door. Just before heading out, he turned back to you.

“Night, Alice.”

“Good night, Stretch.” He gave you a smile just before turning off the lights and closing the door, leaving you with Koko. The moonlight was the only thing that lit up your room, you got up from your bed to grab your grandfather’s journal. Returning underneath the blankets with Koko already curled up on the side, making you let out a small chuckle.

“You must be exhausted from today, especially from that strange ‘shortcut’. I wonder what that really was.” Koko only let out a whine as he moved closer to your body. Smiling, you pet the little fox’s head with your left hand, and opened the journal with your right. As you read the written cursive text, your smile slowly became solemn.

“Grandpa, just what exactly were you? And why are your books so important to these skeletons anyway? … Will I end up like mama if I do use them?” You whispered to yourself as you sighed. “Since monsters are here now, does that mean you’re… Ugh. Seems like hopeful wishing.” You started to reread the passage written in cursive, tying to find any new information.

_“It appears my child seems to have powers similar to mine, however, since she has her mother’s human side, her magic is not quite fully formed. In turn, her powers are significantly halved compared to mine. Perhaps in due time, she will be able to control her magic much better. She already takes most of her appearance from her mother, and my fast learning, perhaps it may come sooner than I anticipated.”_

“What does this mean for me then?” You continued on until you slowly drifted to sleep with Koko by your side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a tumblr for any Undertale stuff I do, so if you wanna ask me any questions and stuff, head here:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)
> 
> This blog is still fairly new so it's gonna be pretty empty for rn, so drop in. Gonna try to post art and anything extra on there.


	4. Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Huh, so his soulmate was a human?”_   
>  _“Yeah, but that ain’t sayin’ too much if we don’t even know what her gramps was. Hell, maybe he was a monster for all we know.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, this chapter's a bit short sorry about that, but the polls should be at the bottom. I also am considering changing the rating to explicit for any future smut, so I made another poll for it. 
> 
> The name and ratings will be decided by next tuesday.
> 
> Tbh, I'm not very happy with this chapter, I'm probably gonna rewrite it later.  
> (Also, I have another day off tomorrow cause of the weather so I'm gonna upload another chapter tomorrow. Maybe I'll also upload some art of the boys too. And the reader's clothes.)
> 
>  
> 
> **EDIT: I added a bit more to the chapter because I had forgotten some details for later on.**

Stretch had just come out of Alice’s room, once the door was fully closed, he slid down to his knees as his face was engulfed in an orange hue.

“God, that was close. I’m just lucky my soul didn’t jump outta my chest, kept beating like the kid after training.” As Stretch stood back up and walked down the stairs, everything was pitch black for a split second until his surroundings changed to a different set of stairs that entered a sort of strange lab. He was greeted with Sans, Red, Aster, and G looking through the various books gathered from Alice’s home.

“Oh, Stretch, is our new guest tucked in? Slim seems to be busy with errands from Blackberry at the moment, so I will be taking his place for today.” Aster said, looking up from one of the journals. The incoming skeleton nodded.

“So, what’d you find out about her?” Sans asked, looking from his taped glasses.

“Well, she’s definitely not just any normal human. Her eyes seem to be able to turn red, at least, it did when she was talking with her foxy friend.” That definitely grabbed everyone’s attention.

“Red eyes? But, the gal didn’ got any EXP last we checked, did she?” Red asked Sans with a deep growl. No way in hell is he gonna go through another cycle of resets just cause of a kid again.

“Yeah, not even one.”

“From what I can tell when I was with her, that’s just how her powers work. Whenever she spoke with her fox, her eyes changed to red.” Stretch replied as he sat back next to G.

“Ya think the doll might just be putting up a persona? I mean, she  **did** just meet you all out of the blue.” G suddenly asked, causing the skeletons’ eyelights to disappear.

“That  **is** a possibility. I mean, if Chara hadn’t reprimanded Frisk, we would have been in that continuous loop forever. Or at least, until he was done with everything he could find.” Sans said, causing a shiver to run down almost everyone’s spines. 

“There doesn’t seem to be any malice guiding her and it looks like she’s not possessed or anything. Let’s wait it out for a bit, then decide if she’s a threat.” Stretch countered. Red let out a low chuckle at Stretch’s words.

“If it turns out toots’s trouble, then looks like fate’s got one helluva sick joke.”

“She might not even be the one Red, we felt a  **monster’s** soul, not a human’s.”

“Did ya even hear what ashtray said? She might not even be a fuckin’ human! You really think humans can change their damn eyes and talk to animals like that, Vanilla? This ain’t a fuckin’ Disney movie.” Sans could only let out a grumble in response.

“I agree with Stretch, all we can do for right now is wait and see if she really is trouble on our hands and if she’s our mate.” Aster concluded, attempting to lower the tension in the air. The others only shuffled in their seats and grumbled in agreement.

“Fuck, if little doll’s really our mate, then she’s gonna have one helluva good time.” Red’s grin became more deveous than before, his response only getting groans from the other skeletons.

“Red, please don’t try anything inappropriate to her.”

“Oh, I’m not the only one ya hav’ ta lookout for, where’s toots stayin’ when  **that** time comes ‘round?” Red chuckled darkly as everyone paled, Sans especially, he completely forgot about that time of the month…

“Well, she can stay with the kids and Tori or even ‘Dyne and Al’ when it comes--”

“But, we determined that she’s not quite human, so, on the off chance there’s some monster in her, she’s probably gonna go through it too. So, her being with the kids is out of the question and the scientists and guards would feel strange with her durin’ that time.” G cut Sans off without looking up from his book. Sans let out an audible “shit” before going back to the drawing board.

“Okay, I can book her a hotel or something and we can have ‘Dyne drop her off there and make sure nothing or no one go in her room during that time. And if anyone of us shows up on her doorstep, he’s gonna have to face special training.” Sans concluded as Red sulked at the idea. G only hummed in agreement, as if a parent pretending to listen to their kid. Asshole.

“So, anything new that you all found while I was away?” Stretch asked, changing the embarrassing topic.

“It looks like her gramps was there before the barrier was even made. He found out that he had a soulmate and had a kid with her.” G said as he picked up the book he was currently holding to show off the drawing of a woman. The woman on the page seems to look almost identical to you.

“Huh, so his soulmate was a human?”

“Yeah, but that ain’t sayin’ too much if we don’t even know what her gramps was. Hell, maybe he was a monster for all we know.”

“But, our new guest looks far too human to be part monster. The more likely case would be the possibility of the man being a mage, they always did research on monsters and so on at the time, furthermore, they are the only other ones, other than monsters, to know the existence of soulmates. His wife could have been one as well.” Aster added.

“Yeah, that would explain her talking to that fox like it was nothin’. Heard mages could talk to animals for spyin’ an’ shit like that.”  The skeletons all let out a collective sigh in frustration. Just what was she? They can’t seem to figure anything out with just vague hints. Sans then remembered something.

“She said her mom was just out back, right? Did her mom say anything?” Stretch shifted uncomfortably from the question.

“Actually, her mom  **couldn’t** tell me anything. The kid was actually talking about her mom’s  **grave** . Sayin’ goodbye to her before leavin’.” Stretch said, causing the air to be more constricting.

“Oh. I… See.”

“So, the doll’s jus’ been all on her own all these years? Considerin’ how young she looks, she musta lost her ma when she was jus’ a kid,” Red finally said, “That sure ‘splains why she was fuckin’ shiverin’ outta her  **skin** when she saw us.” The air was practically suffocating from the new information, G let out a cough to change the subject.

“How about we focus on the more important project at hand, there’s probably more information on that case than anything.” G finally cut through the silence, everyone nodded. Though, G can’t help but be curious too especially reading the name signed at the bottom of every journal. That name, sounds so damn familiar to him. There were footsteps from the stairway, only for the mystery person to be Slim.

“So, what’d I miss?” Slim asked nonchalantly, causing all heads to look up at the incoming skeleton.

“Well, for one, little toots ain’t all that human, her eyes turn red when talkin’ to that furry buddy of hers, not ta mention, there ain’t any fuckin’ leads on what exactly she is and she ain’t got any relatives to ask about that either. So, we’re playin’ the waitin’ game an’ see if dollface is gonna be a threat or not.” Red answered with a exhausted sigh, Slim in turn rose a bone brow to this.

“Well, I’m thinkin’ the reason why y’all can’t figure her out is cause yer missin’ a book.” Slim said simply, Stretch looked at the other in confusion, but quickly changed to one of realization.

“That family book!” Stretch yelled out, wanting to hit himself for not remembering sooner.

“Family book?”

“Uh, yeah, apparently that book meant a lot to her considerin’ it was locked and she held it real close. She had the key for it right on her necklace.”

“Stretch, why didn’t you mention that we were missing a book?”

“She said it was really important to her, I wasn’t gonna snatch the book out her hands like we basically did to her from her home. Plus it didn’t look all that important at first, had kids doodles all over the front.” Stretch shrugged as Sans buried his face in his boney hands.

“God damn it, Stretch.”

“Wait, if it’s that special ta her, we’re gonna hav’ ta find a fuckin’ way to get both the key an’ book from her.” Red finally concluded, everyone going quiet just before letting out an exasperated groan. Aster shifted uncomfortably at Red’s suggestion.

“Why can’t we just ask her about her family? I’m sure she would be more than willing to cooperate. She sounds like a sweet girl, she  **did** agree to come live with us after you all came in uninvited. The least we could do is not take something so… Personal to her.” Aster suggested. Sans looked down in guilt as Red just growled. Stretch and Slim’s expressions were unreadable while G gave his brother an impenetrable stare.

“Humans are nothin’ but selfish, ya really think she’s anythin’ different bookworm?” 

“This world is not like yours Red. And anyway, the children have each other to keep in check. The resets won’t happen anymore.” Aster retorted, Red glared at the skeleton and scoffed, but remained quiet.

“Well. I suppose we  **could** let her keep her book. We need ta focus on our project more anyway.” Slim finally said, lighting up a cigarette. 

“Good. We need to ensure that she feels safe in this household, it is the least everyone here could do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the poll for the reader's name and description:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331909~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> And here is the poll for the story's future rating:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331924~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	5. New Roommates!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“You really tumbled into action, huh, kid?”_
> 
> _“Please stop.”_
> 
> _“Oh, don’t worry kid. Not everyday we get a fallen angel in our house.”_
> 
> _“Saaaaanssss.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School cancelled again today cause of the weather, so, I'm able to post a new chapter.
> 
> Warning, a mild anxiety attack happens in the beginning of this chapter but it's not that bad.
> 
> Also, I'm putting the reader's clothes design at the end, the design of the skeletons will be added later today if finish drawing them all.

_Back here again. In the pitch darkness, I can barely see my hands in front of my face. Everything is cold, I try to look around me to see if there’s anyone nearby._

_“Koko? Stretch? Sans? Red?... Slim?”_

**_But nobody came._ **

_Every part of my body started to shake._

**_You’re all alone. No one is here to help you. They all left you because they were tired of how useless you are. You couldn’t even save your own mother._ **

_No. No! I curl myself into a ball and covered my ears hoping the voice would go away._

**_You’re different, why else would no one accept you? Things like you will never get its happy ending. Just give up now._ **

_The voice continued to speak. Please. Leave me alone. I don’t want to hear it anymore!_

_“Sugarcube,  please listen to me, don’t pay attention to the other voice. Just focus on my voice.”_

_It’s that voice again, but at the same time, not quite. This one sounds a bit more bubbly and bouncy. But even so, I feel at ease somehow._

_“Good, now, close your eyes and keep focus on me.”_

_I obeyed. I slowly stood up and closed my eyes, my breathing becoming much more even._

_“Start walking forward until you bump into something.”_

_Walk? What will that do? Well, there really isn’t much choice here. As I walked, the voice continued to speak to me so I don’t get another panic attack._

_“You’re doing so well, sugarcube. Just a few more steps and-- there we are.”_

_I walked into something… Or someone in this case? I placed my hands in front of me, it felt like a torso. The voice let out a laugh._

_“Ha ha ha ha! Oh-hoho Su-sugarcube, don’t do that, I’m quite ticklish! Ha ha ha!”_

_I immediately stopped my detective work and took a step back, but an arm wrapped itself around my waist to pull me closer to the figure. But, I still felt calm in the mystery man’s arms._

_“It’s best for you to stay close to me sugarcube, now, I’m gonna have to explain a bit to you.”_

_I nodded as I attempted to open my eyes, only to be scolded._

_“Nuh-uh little honey-bee, it’s still too early for that.”_

_My eyes instantly closed again once I was reprimanded. I shuffled awkwardly in his hold, my arms wrapped around his, probably, torso in this strange position. I unintentionally nuzzled my face into the fabric feeling body. Even with my closed eyes I could tell the faint light had grew brighter._

_“O-oh, I was not expecting that, B-but anyway, we need your help.”_

_We? There are more of them?_

 

_“B̸ut,͘ ̵͖̟̝̗͙̳͍͠f̷̼̹̝r͏͎̝̳͈̗̤ͅo̜̞̕m͔͖͍͔ ̡̯̲w̸̼̯͎̜̼h̡͖̟a҉̺̻t̸̘͎̼͔̜ ҉͙̰͙̰̘͚͈w̬̘e̞̯̖ ̨͕̭̱͔͓̜c͕a̜̩̟͔̬n͏ ͎̮̪͖̲g͏̣̫a̘͉̥̙̳̖̝͡t̶̖͍̘͖̜͔h̴͚̣̯͚e̷͍r̡͓̬͕̝̲̖̹,̭̤͠ͅ ̡̰̙͖̼̦ͯͭ̒ͧͨ͛̑y̸̯̯̮̬͍̠̗̾̈́̽̎ͮ̚͟ͅo͕̖̞̗̳̰̗͈͎͛ͤú̥͇̌̐̓͜ ͎̮̟̯̙̦ͤ̎ͣͥw̴̫̱̺̤̓ͣ̓̾̈́ͭͩ͞i̴̝͔̪̳̙̫̱ͫ̃̅̒͆̈͜l̴͕̗͚̦͛̒̅ͬ̏͆ͫ̿ļ̭̬̭̙̀́͂̓̐͗͛͢ ̭̖̝̱̤̗͚̋̾͜h̤̲̘̭̍͛͆̒̌ͦ͆͠a͑̄̈҉͍̹v̬̼̤̤͙̗̫̹͔́ͯͯ̂̎͂ͨͫ̋͟ȩ̺͈̱̳͇͔̅̄ ̘̹͈͌̄̈͛̚ţ̴͓̬̜̼͔̣̤̰̟͆o̴̙̫͈̲̬͌̋͂̚̕ ~~g̸̡̖̪͇̭̪̮͉̯͑̎ͤ̓͢å̷̡̠̩̹̻̝̖̘͕̝̭͉̪̲̗ͭ͑̃͑͆̏̓̌͂̋̕i̶͛ͭ͊ͭ͂ͮ̆̒̽̇̄͂̋ͥͫ̑ͨ̚͟͞҉͈̪̥̥̟̤̜̫̭̦̖͔͙̰ñ̢̢̜̩̜̥̄ͣͯ̓̄̃̂͒̚͠͡͡ͅ ͓̜̣̞͓̥̤̣̙͙̫ͤͭ̉̎͌͌̎̿̋̋ͤͨͦͯ̕͘o͂͋͒͋̉̏̏̒ͤ̅̎̔̂ͩ͏̶̦̺͇̩̜͇̩͍ů̡̡̙̺̝̙͎̱̭͇̻̋̎̇̒͌͊ͧ̇̔̾̏͂͂̔̿r̷̨̯̰͍̞̹̽̅̆ͥ͘͞ ̸̵͕͚͖̯̝̝̦̘̤̟̺͛̈́̀̔͗̅͊̎͂̀ͩ̄̍ͦͭͮ͊ͫ͟͞ͅb͆͑̌̍ͩ̓͆̎̔ͫ̐͑͏̶̶̢̙̗̞͚͔̝͉̩̭͈͟r̶̡̧̰̳̤̲͖͈̙̟ͨ͌̒ͦ͐ͪ͐͢͡o̷̡̩̙̫͓̤̦͉̖͓̝̪̫̜̯̞̻͓̣̿̔͋̀ͭ̈́͐ͤͩ̂͂̋͊̾̓̒ţ̶̛̘͈͓̖̫̬̣̰̙̞͎̿ͯ̇̌̀̽͊ͥ̆̓͗̉h̶̻̟̙͔͕̯̗̀͌ͤ̅̑̔̊̾̎̃̒͢e̬̙̝͓̞̜͓̹͓̱̩̠̿ͤ̉ͦ͐̿͂̕͝͞͠r̶͙͓͕̰̼̻̲̱̯͍͚͕͈̪͖̠̱̮̅ͧ̌ͣͭ̋͊ͥ̾̂̇͂̈́̅̆͑ͯ͞ͅs͙͙̣̫̣̦͖͉͖̓ͪ͑̐ͯͦͫ̃̏ͣͣ̑̇̊̂͋'ͤ͊͊̇̋ͭ̀̋͑͗͏̦̲͕̭̼̤ ̵̡͌͂̓͗͐ͧ̑ͩͧ̊́ͤ͊̓͊̎̇̀̋͠҉̲͇͖͈͓̳̠̣̯̞̻̺͈t̴̺̥̱͈̉ͧ̌̾̍͌ͫ̃̂̚̚͞r̆̓̈́̈́̌̋̓͏̵̵̩̙̟͍̜̲̬͉̘̦̭ư̶̗̱͖̤̙͉ͧͦͩ͊͞ş̺̣̹̱͓̩̖ͪͭ͂͒ͣ͒͒̏̿̒͒̅͊̎̎̓͛ͦ̂͞tͫ͒͗̇ͤ͗̋ͦ͊ͨ̽͝҉̩͔̗͈̣͙̲ ̨̪̭̮̼̳̩̤͍̘͙̜̼̭͇̤̜͔̲̌̅͐̋ͥͭ̅̒͋̾̄̅͑͘̕t̴̷̡̛̤̰̜̭̖̹͓̪̥ͤ͌̈ͯͫ̂̓̔͆́̎̒ͮ̋ͧ̂͝h̛͚̠͕͚͌ͩ͑ͥ͑̊͐͋̅̓̓ͬ̐ͧͭ̑̚͜͝ȩͫ̿͛͋͌̅͑̔̅҉̭͎͔͜n̴̦̣̫̤̤̤̬̲̺̤̦͂̓̂͆͢ ̴̫͉̳̺̮͊ͨ̃͑̊ͥͬ̍̚̚͜y͓̱̰̠̙͚͓̜͎̻̤̖͎̅ͩ̓͆̂̔̓͋̑̕͜ͅo̟̖̺͉̖ͯ͐̃ͭ̆̃̏̓̐ͤͫ͘͘͢͟͡u̯̪̣͋̊̈́͛̔͒̒̽͆̚͜͝ͅ ̱̪̻̺ͩ̓̽̎̓͗̊͗̑̆̒͒͡w̷̡̳͙̠͚͔̤͔̼͖̫̺̗͙̮ͫ͆ͯ̊͡i̥͇̪̪̺͇̺̯̰͎̳ͤ̃͂̂͑͒̄̿͢l̝͙̯̼͈̺̗̜͙͕̯̺͎̮̄̒ͩ͒ͧͧ̾ͪ̓̊̐̆̄ͦ̈̾ͪ̃̚͞͝͠ĺ̴͍̜̹͙̦͕̪͇̺ͧ̉ͫ͟͟͞ ̸ͫ̊ͬ̽̈ͫ́ͪ҉̟̘̰͖̺̭̘̣̹̹b̢ͯͧ̇̽̓̽̾ͯ̇͑͋ͦͬ̒͟͏͕̦͚̱͎͖̭̫̟̣̦̪̫e̸̿ͧ͒̔́̚̕҉̱̝͚̣̭̮͙̭̞̱̗͖͔̥̳̤̼͕ ̌̃̏͌̋̂̃ͮ̿́̈̃ͤͬ͗͏̻̞̜̱̭̠͕̣͈͇͍͚̖a̗̲͈̱̺̺͓̝̬̞̝̙̬̲̯̣͔͈̓͑̑̔͘͜͝͠ͅb̴̡̩̟̳͚̬̞̖͚͇̗ͫ̆ͮ̅͊͌͛ͭ̎ͫ͘͜ļ̸̯̹͉͇̞̼͍͈̯͈̗̪͖̥͍̓͊̋̓ͯ̊ͧͨ̊ͧ̇̏̓ͫͩ̋̂̍ȩ̹̟͙͇͇̞̦̞ͬͣͩͤ̀̃͒ͧ̓ͥ͑̔ͨͪ́̈͗͐̊͞͞ͅ ̓̽͗̏̅̽ͫ͏̰̺͖̜̳̤̭̤̪͕͓͕̼͈͓̼͠͞͡tͦ̾̾̂̽̔͗ͣ̇́ͦ͐͌͌̋͂̚͝͠͠҉̤̖̬̦͔͖͕͎̘̼̫̭͚o̸͖̦̺͚̙̬̗̜͍̬ͦ̐ͧ̈́ ͙̺̣̹̺̝̙̪̻̯͈̜͙̩͓͈͙̓̓̎͗ͬ̈̆̃̔̀̎̒͊͢s̡̠̗̝̭͈͇͙̗̦̻̘̅ͥͬͣ̿͌̇ͪ̈́́ͩ̾̾͐ͪͫͣ͡͞a̛̮͈̥͎ͦ̌͐̒̽̓̓͢v̶̶̛̞͔̻͕̪̻̳̱̹̞̣̮ͥ͆̉ͨ̿̏̚͢ë̶̈́ͤ̆̉̅ͬ͊ͧͧͭ̃͐̓̏̔͐̿͏̟̫̠̩̳̩̳͔͕͚ͅ ̧̨̛̭̣̭͇͔̯̬͎͙͔̥͎̘̅̃͊̓̋̈͊ͪ͛̔͜͝u͈͉̮͕̘̾ͨͫ̾ͨͥͬ͆̍̾̇͘͡ş̷̸͈̬̙̲̱̠̤̞̪̻ͯ̄͑̑̽̄͋ͫ̋ͣ͗̚~~ ” _

 

 _Unfortunately, the voice was become almost near incoherent at the end of his sentence._ Before I could question the voice, I felt myself tumble over and land face first on wood.

_“Alice! Are you okay over there?”_

“Never better, Koko. Never better.” I sat up from my position to taking in my surroundings. This wasn’t my home. Wait, I moved out and into Sans’s house with his… Cousins?

“What a strange dream. I wonder who that voice was and why he didn’t want me to look at him… ” I let out a sigh as I stood up, stretching myself and feeling that satisfying pop in my back. Ah, I forgot to put the journal away, it looks like it went down with me. I picked it up and locked it back up, placing it in the drawer of the nightstand next to my bed. I wonder if the other skeletons are awake now? As if on cue, I heard a knock on the door and a familiar voice.

“Hey there, kiddo. You up yet? Sure sounded like it.” My face turned red, did everyone in the house hear that? But, it looks like Sans was here to accompany me this morning. I opened the door to see his usual smiling skull. He looks so smug.

“You really **tumbled** into action, huh, kid?” My face redded more at the joke.

“Please stop.”

“Oh, don’t worry kid. Not everyday we get a **fallen** angel in our house.”

“Saaaaanssss.” Just as I stepped out of the room, Koko spirited to come between me and Sans.

“Oh, why hello, Koko. What’s wrong?” The fox only grumbled as he glared at the skeleton.

“Your friend doesn’t seem to like me all that **meowch**.” Oh dear, that one was pretty bad, but I still laughed for some reason.

“He’s still just shy around you. Isn’t that right, Koko?” The big butt had the nerve to snort at my question!

“Koko, that’s not very nice! Apologise, mister!”

“Heh, it’s alright, kiddo. Let’s head downstairs, everyone’s been wanting to meet ya.” I gave him a nod as I followed him downstairs to the living room, the room filled with about six other skeletons, not including Sans. I scanned over the skeletons in the room, Red, Stretch, and Slim does not appear to be here. Did they oversleep? There were four of the skeletons who were dressed in armor and all seem to speak in very boisterous voices. Once we stepped in, all eyes-- er, eye sockets were on me. I look down at Koko in embarrassment. Then, rather abruptly, two of the excited skeletons ran up to me, one in armor and a blue, short scarf and stars in their eyes who is just about an inch shorter than me and the other quite easily towered me, but was not as tall as Stretch, who also wore armor but had red accents along with a long, worn out scarf.

“Why, hello there human! It is a pleasure to finally meet you! Pa-- I mean, my brother, Stretch, informed us of a new roommate but he did not even let us clean up your room, so, human, I apologize on our brothers’ behalf if the room was still dusty! We have not used the attic in years!” The shorter one in blue exclaimed, is it strange to think of a skeleton as cute?

“Oh, no, it was actually quite clean! I’m just happy to have a place to stay.”

“Nyeh heh heh! Why, you are very welcome, Human! You are welcome to stay as long as you need! I am the Great Papyrus! And you have already met my lazy brother Sans.” Papyrus said with a mighty laugh, is it strange to think of someone taller than you to be cute?

“And I am the Magnificent Blueberry!” The shorter skeleton’s eyes turned into literal stars. Oh gosh, I want to hold him, doesn’t help he looks like he has chubby cheeks-- wait, how does that even work? He is literally made of bone! … Probably?

“I-it’s nice to meet you two, I’m Alice and this one by my feet is Koko. He’s a bit on the shy side.” Koko shifted behind my legs more to hide from the eye sockets, Papyrus giving a the little fox a look of suspicion just before looking back at me.

“Your little friend here does not happen to have a taste for bones? Do they?” Oh, Koko must look more like a dog to them huh?

“Oh, no, no. Koko is a fox, his diet is supposed to be small mammals like mice and rabbits, and fruits. He’s going to need a bit more meat on those bones.” I laughed, but looking back at the two, they gave me a grimence. Did I say something wrong?

“Ms. Alice, was. Was that a pun?”

“What do you mean?”

“The part where you had said ‘meat on the bone’.” I finally realized what I had said and let out an embarrassed laugh.

“Oh! I, I suppose it was. I didn’t mean to make a pun there.” Blueberry and Papyrus gave each other an extremely worried look before facing me once more.

“Human! You have been hanging out with our brothers for far too long! You must hang out with Blueberry and I before the damage is fully done!”

“Th-the what?” Before the two could answer, a loud and furious voice cut the two off.

“Are you two creampuffs done taking all of the pathetic human’s attention? There are others in this house hold too!” An extremely tall, sharp, black leather wearing skeleton yelled at the two in front of you. Pathetic? Just cause it’s true doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt at least a tiny bit.

“For once, I agree with _Razor_ , would you two just hurry up already?” A shorter skeleton in armor similar to Blueberry but in reds and blacks groaned as the taller one shot them with a possibly death inducing glare. Oh, did a pun again.

“Oh, sorry! We had gotten carried away!” Papyrus said as the two skeletons took my hand to bring me to the other skeletons in the room. I felt an electric tingle from the two’s touch, my face started to heat up from the sensation. Oh dear, now that I am up close to the glaring, leather wearing skeleton, he quite easily surpasses me in height, even Stretch! This monster had to be over seven feet tall!

“Now that I have your attention, worthless human, I am the Mighty and Terrible Pa-- EDGE! Red is my useless, lazy brother who does nothing but eat and sleeps all day!” The tall monster had practically screamed his name to make up for the little stumble he did, I think my ears are ringing from that. But, I guess he’s the kind to belittle the people around him? I took a good look at his face, he seems to have a scar on his right eye and he even has a few other nicks like Slim did but a bit more noticable. Maybe he has a reason for acting the way he does? Another loud voice cut me from my thoughts, this time, coming from the black and red armor wearing monster. That one seems to be around my height, maybe an inch taller.

“Human! Eyes on me! Remember my name, I will only say it once so I do not have to interact with you further! I am the Merciless and Maleficent Blackberry! But you may refer to me as Black, if you dare call me Blackberry, I swear I will have my brother, Mutt, dust you.” O-oh dear, I stood behind Papyrus, a bit scared of the threat I was told. Papyrus then whispered to me, noticing how nervous I became.

“Don’t worry, human, Edge and Black may seem intimidating, but they are actually quite nice inside.” Papyrus assured me, I look at Blacks scowling face, he also had a scar, but over his left eye and was just as littered with chips and scratches as Edge. What on Earth happened to them?

“Now, now, it ain’t nice to scare away our new roommate.” A smooth, low voice said to the two scarred monsters as said two just gave a ‘tch’ as they both sat down still wearing a scowl. That voice felt familiar. It had a sweet, calming tone like the ones from the dreams but more grounded in reality and had a slight rasp. A skeleton wearing a short furred jacket and leather jeans walked up to me. Oh, he was quite tall too, not quite Edge’s height but perhaps a head or so shorter than Papyrus.

“Sorry about that princess, those two aren’t all that used to any social interactions. The name’s Green, sweetheart, but just call me G, pleasure to finally meet ya.” I flushed at all the nicknames I was given by G then he suddenly held my hand and brought it up to his teeth, an audible ‘mwah’ noise could be heard when the back of my hand made contact with his teeth, an electric tingle spread throughout my body. Di-did he just kiss my hand?! Koko let out low growl as he glared at G. I could hear G let out a low chuckle as I stammered, trying to find the words to say.

“Heh, this one’s real cute. An’ looks like her lil’ bodyguard’s all jealous.”

“You are just as flirtatious as ever, brother.” A new voice joined in, just as melodic and tranquil. However, this one is more of a whisper rather than G’s slight rasp.

“Hello, Alice. I am Aster, G’s brother. It is nice to meet you.” Aster smiled, he looked to be about a head or two taller than G. He also seems much more passive and calculating too. His voice also had a similar tone to the ones in my dream, but, more melodic I think.

“H-hello, i-i-it is nice to meet you all. I h-hope to get along with everyone.” I attempted to say while still flustered at G’s stunt.

I really don’t think I will last in this household.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the poll for the reader's name and description:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331909~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> And here is the poll for the story's future rating:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331924~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	6. Old Friend (Art of the boys included!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> __  
> **“How are you two able to understand me anyway?”**  
>   
> 
> _“Magic~”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, for this week, I am going to post 4 chapters because I am like, 8 or 9 chapters ahead and wanted to catch up a little bit on here so it would be easier for any sort of future polls.
> 
> Oh! Also, I drew some designs for the skeleton boys and it will be featured at the end of this chapter, the pictures will also be posted on my tumblr.
> 
>  
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

“Human! I have an important question for you… ” Papyrus said with a bit of a shifty look in his sockets.

“Yes, Papyrus?”

“Do you like spaghetti?”

“Oh, yes! Human, do you also like tacos?”

“If the pathetic human any sort of taste, then they would choose lasagna!”

“Hah! Not even the weakest monster would eat those as their final meal, if the human had actual taste then she will choose quesadillas!” The four loud monsters then started to bicker about which food is the greatest. I turned to Sans for help. Oh, he’s asleep. Of all the times to be asleep.

“ Okay, you guys’re scarin’ the little princess. How about you all make her some then she can decide which one is the best, alright?” G said, bringing the arguments to a halt, the other four monsters looked to be thinking.

“What a wonderful idea, G! I assure you, human, you will taste the best spaghetti ever made!”

“No way! my tacos are the best in this whole universe!”

“My lasagna will be the winner in this sad excuse of a competition!”

“You are all wrong! My quesadillas shall triumph over your pathetic dishes you all call food!” And just like that, the four skeletons all ran into the kitchen all at once as G let out a chuckle. Aster face contorted to one of worry as he groaned.

“Brother, what have you done?” Wait, what did he do wrong?

“Gave us some time to get to know our little princess. Nice to have some alone time.”

“Yes, that certainly is nice, however, you also gave her possibly the worst fate you can give anyone.” Wa-wait what?! What is he even talking about?! Koko started to paw at my leg, wanting me to pick him up. I carried him up like holding a child, his paws around my neck and head relaxing on my shoulder.

“Aw, come on Ast', they all gotten better after that little incident.” … Little incident?

“That does not change the fact they made the children sick for days after that.” Sick for days?! Is their cooking that awful?

“Don’t worry, they’re gonna omit the non-edible parts this time. I think.” Aster only huffed at his brother’s response and turned to me.

“I am sorry for my brother’s little stunt, my dear. You do not have to eat their cooking, I will make sure to make something when they are done with the kitchen.” I look over at the kitchen from my position and I could see fumes and pots being thrown in the room along with tons of yelling from the excitable monsters. They seem to be having fun, I suppose. I shook my head.

“Y-you don’t have to do that, they look like they’re working hard on their cooking. I sh-should at least try it.” Aster smiled at my response.

“Oh, you are are too sweet. Well, a fair warning, Edge tends to make his food rather sour and Black always makes his very spicy.” G then took my hand and had me sit down between him and Aster, Koko still in my arms.

“So, kiddo, let’s have a little **heart to heart**.” Sans asked as he walked up to me, looks like he’s conveniently awake now. G released my hand and crossed his legs and rested his head on his skeletal palm, with unwavering eye contact. I could feel my face heat up at the attention.

“Now, you two, you are making our guest uncomfortable.”

“I’m just gonna ask her a little question, Aster, nothing bad… Depending on the answer.” Wait what?

“Sans.”

“What? Like I said, just a simple little question. So, kid, what do you think of our brothers?” Was Sans referring to Papyrus and the others?

“I think they are absolutely wonderful! Papyrus is extremely sweet and nice! Blueberry is quite energetic but in a good way! As for Edge and Black, they don’t seem to like me very much, but, they looked like they been through quite a bit themselves. I hope to get to know all of them better. I wouldn’t mind to have any one of them as a sibling! I wouldn’t mind having a sibling in general, actually. Would have been nice to have company back over there… ” I muttered, Sans looked away with guilt in his eye sockets.

“Uh, yeah. My bro is really cool. Wouldn’t wish for anyone else.” Sans finally sighed, the two skeletons next to me gave Sans a deadpan look from his statement. I could feel Koko shuffle in my arms so he was maintaining eye contact with me, letting out a little whine just before giving my cheek a little kiss and nuzzle.

_“Are you alright, Alice?”_

“... Yeah.” Everyone was quiet for a bit, you could practically cut the tension with a knife. Aster let out a little cough, wait how did he do that without a throat?

“So, Alice, what are your hobbies?” Was Aster trying to distract me? How nice of him.

“Uhm, back at my old house, I would paint to pass the time but I would usually read the books I had.”

“Oh, you paint? I would love to see some of your work sometime, perhaps we could paint together one day!” Oh, he likes to paint too? I gave him a nod.

“That would be quite nice.” Koko suddenly let out a growl, when I looked over he had G’s hand in his maw! G was probably was just trying to pet him.

“Koko! No biting mister!” I gave him a firm, reprimanding pat on the butt which caused him to let go of the monster’s hand. “I’m really sorry, G! I don’t know why he’s been so rude as of late. Koko, at least apologize!” The said vulpine let out a snort then jumped out of my arms just to kick dust at G’s direction. What a jerk! “Koko!” The moment I stood up to scold him, he dashed upstairs, probably to hide back in our room. I flopped back on the couch, letting out a sigh. “I’m really sorry, G. I don’t understand why he’s acting this way.” The three skeletons only let out a laugh from Koko’s antics.

“It’s alright, darlin’. But, I’ve been meaning to ask how you met the lil’ devil’s messenger. Never seen a fox with that fur color either.” Ah, that’s right, Koko’s fur is really rare compared to normal foxes. Plus he also had heterochromia, normal does not seem to follow me all that much.

“Oh, from the books I’ve read, Koko is an American Red Fox with a pearl latina color morph, his kind are very rare. As to how I met him, it is a bit long.” The skeletons had gone quiet to listen closely to the story, Sans had also sat down on a nearby chair.

_I remembered him since he was just a little pup, I was just a child at the time. His parents were hunted for their pelt and he happened to waddle onto our front yard while I was collecting flowers, he had a broken leg at the time. I carried him to my mother, even with his injuries, he did his best to struggle out of my grip._

**_“Lemme go you dumb human! Or I’ll, I’ll… ”_ **

_“Don’t worry mr. fox, my mama is gonna fix you right up! Mama is really, really nice!” The fox looked back at me in shock._

**_“ Y-you can understand me?”_ ** _I gave him a nod._

_“Mmhm! Every word!” I finally found my mother in the kitchen cooking dinner._

_“Oh, Alice, you’re ba--” Mama’s eyes widened in shock when she saw the injured fox cub in my small arms. “Oh my! What in the world happened?!”_

_“I found mr. fox walking all funny when I was picking flowers.” My mother then gently picked up the fox from my arms, cradling the animal as if he was one of her own._

_“Oh dear, are you alright my child? Could you tell me where it hurts the most?” The tiny fox looks at her in surprise before giving his left paw a little lick._

_“A broken leg, huh? Alice, could you bring me the bandages?”_

_“Ok, mama!” I ran upstairs to grab the bandages from the nightstand next to the bed mama and I share. As I walked back, I could hear the conversation mother was having with the little fox, who was resting on top of the living room table._

**_“How are you two able to understand me anyway?”_ ** _Mother giggled at his question._

_“Magic~” She simply said as she waved her hands, while the fox gave her a confused stare._

_“Well, that_ **_is_ ** _technically the truth. So, what brings you all the way over here little one?” Mr. Fox’s expression soon became more solemn._

**_“I got into a trap, mom got me out of it but, these mean humans with guns were chasing after me. Mom and dad told me to keep running while they stayed to distract the humans, I hid in the bushes and… I saw them shoot my mommy and daddy. I ran without looking back until I didn’t hear those humans anymore.”_ **

_“Oh… My child. It must have been hard to see such a thing,” She placed her hand on the animal’s head to gently caress him, who flinched at the touch. “You are welcome to come back whenever you need to after you recover.” The small vulpine gave her a surprised look._

_“I found ‘em, mama!”_

_“Oh, thank you my dear.” She gently placed her hand on the fox’s paw, who gave out a whine. “I am sorry dear, you will have to endure the pain for a tiny bit.” Mama’s hand started to glow a dim green as the fox looked at the hand in amazement. Mama let out a giggle from the animal’s reaction._

_“Like I said, magic,” She then wrapped the bandages around the paw. “There we are, soon, you’ll be good as new!” I started to hop around, excited to make a new friend._

_“Hey, hey, mr. fox! Do you have a name? It would be weird to just call you mr. fox all the time.” The fox just shook his head, I rested my body near the animal on the table._

_“Then, how about we call you Koko?” The fox then nodded meekly and I gave him a giant smile as mama returned to the kitchen making more food for our new guest._

_“Great! It’s nice to meet you, Koko! My name’s Alice, and that person is my mama!” I said as I gave the tiny multi-colored fox a couple pats on the head. The small vulpine’s eyes began to form large tears that fell from his maw._

**_“Alice.”_ **

_“Yeah, Koko?”_

**_“... Thank you.”_ **

“After his recovery, he was basically our new family member, we would play outside everyday and eat dinner together with mother. But, on that certain day, he just… disappeared. Until today that is.” I concluded my story as I looked down at my hands in my lap, everyone’s expression became more gentle.

“So, technically, that bratty lil’ thing is all the family you got left, huh, sweetcheeks?” My head bolted up to the new voice in the room, Red was standing near the stairs with Stretch and Slim. When did they get here?

“We heard the whole thing, sugar plum. So, one last question I’ve got since I first saw ya’,” Slim strided over to me, towering over me even more from my current position, forcing me to crane my neck quite a bit to see his face. “Jus’ what exactly are y--” Before Slim could finish his question, Papyrus and the others came running in each with a dish of… something.

Oh dear, I am very ill prepared.

* * *

 

SKELETON BOYS' DESIGNS:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the poll for the reader's name and description:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331909~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> And here is the poll for the story's future rating:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331924~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> (Both polls end tomorrow, so make sure to vote if you haven't yet!)
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)
> 
> (Pst, I also write headcanons too, stop by if you wanna request some stuff)


	7. Competition of Suffering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _F̶̡̡͖̗̎̑̔̈́̈́̈͋͗ú̵̙̒ñ̸̢̧̫͖͍̥͉̘̐̅̀̏̀̋̚͝…?_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _That’s what he said too, having f̶̢̰̱̩̝͙̟̈́̌̏̽̇̈́͘͝u̴͙̻̟̱͌̇̾̉͝n̴̡̡̙͇͙̉̿̌̔͝._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: THERE IS A PANIC ATTACK IN THIS CHAPTER
> 
>  
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

“Ms. Alice! We have finally finished our creations! All we need now is our judge to prove tacos truly are the best meals!”

“Blueberry! She hasn’t even tried the meals yet!”

“Yes, but I just know my dish will win!”

“Shut up, both of you! Just give the pathetic human your sad excuse for food and have her declare the winner of this dumb little competition!” Edge said as he picked me up to forcibly placed me on the chair to the living room table and slamming his dish in front of me. Surprisingly, the plate didn’t shatter from the force. The other three then placed their respective dishes in front of me as well. They, uh, look very interesting… Oh dear, I can smell the spices from Black’s dish.

“Uh, Blue? I don’t think this whole competition is a good-- Oof.” Stretch was then elbowed by Slim who gave him a weird look.

“I’m sure lil’ sugar plum is really gonna enjoy this contest. I’m sure your dish is gonna be the winner, Milord.” Slim said just before giving mumbling something to Stretch who only groaned.

“Why of course it will, Mutt! I ensured to make my very special recipe for this contest!” Oh, dear. I may just have an early death. I held my fork, deciding to start off this event with Papyrus’s spaghetti. O-oh, I could tell with the fork that textures of the noodles were quite strange. I looked up from the plates to see four pairs of eye lights looking at me expectantly. With Papyrus and Blueberry staring at me with similar eyes Koko would whenever he wanted something. I took a deep breath before finally shoving the fork full of spaghetti in my mouth. 

O-Oh my fu-- I tried my best to chew the noodles, each time causing a disgusting crunch. I honestly have no idea if the crunch were from the noodles or my own teeth. Almost what felt like forever, I was finally able to swallow the dish, taking quite a while to swallow as well.

“P-Papyrus, I've n-never had anything like th-this before. I-it is quite something, but, it is certainly wonderful like you.”

“You really love my cooking?” I gave him a weak nod, oh god I'm so tired. I only took a bite of food, why am I so exhausted? I look at the three remaining dishes in front of me. This is going to be a long challenge. Papyrus expression looks like a puppy who finally got its treat.

“Wowie! Did you hear that Sans? I, the Great Papyrus, has won over yet another human through my wonderful cooking! Nyeh heh heh heh!” I couldn't help but laugh with the tall, giddy skeleton, he was just so cute! Oh, for a split second, Papyrus’s face seemed to be dusted with a bright orange color.

“Heh, that’s great bro.” Blueberry started to pout as the remaining two held a sharp scowl. Blueberry then ran up to me and I could practically see the fire in his eye sockets.

“Ms. Alice! Please try my taco next! I made sure to make today's extra special!” Special, huh? I look over to the shortest skeleton’s plate. Oh… The taco seem to have glitter inside it and looked quite burned yet soggy? I gulped, picking up the taco to take a small bite. Oh how did he-- somehow the soggy looking side was completely dry and the burned side was the one that had all the moisture. That is, uh, very new. As I continued to chew, the flavors somehow transitioned into a new one with every chew. From, sour to bitter to sweet and so on until I finally swallowed.

“O-oh wow Blueberry, your cooking is magnificent like you.” 

“You like it?!” The little skeleton’s pupils had formed into stars, looking at me with expectations. I couldn't help but give him a smile. What a contagious smile.

“Y-yes, quite frankly it's indescribable.” Well, at least it's the truth.

“Wowzers! I’m so happy you love my cooking, Ms. Alice!” Blueberry then gave me an almost bone crushing (ha) hug. The force almost knocking me off the chair and caused me to drop the taco back on the plate. I blushed at the intimate contact. 

“B-Blueberry, I… I need some space, it’s a bit difficult to breathe.” Blue then practically jumped back, his whole hack was cyan.

“O-OH GOSH, I-I’m sorry about that Ms. Alice! I didn’t mean to do that!” I told him it was alright

“Wow, bro, you sure are lookin’ **berry** **blue** over there.” Stretch said as the collection of skeletons near the couches all let out little snorts and chuckles, simultaneously, the group of skeletons near me let out groans of offended pain, as if the joke hurt their very being. I heard Edge give out a growl and I could feel the intense glare the Black and Edge were giving me. 

“Wench! Try the last dishes before any of our useless brothers make another terrible joke!” Edge practically screamed at me, to which I absolutely panicked to grab the fork and shoved the bite of, hopefully, lasagna into my mouth. As I chewed, the bite began to quickly become more and more sour. Just what did he put into this?! Somehow, the lasagna was both overcooked yet undercooked as well. How… How are they able to do this? When I finally swallowed the bite, it felt like glass going down my throat.

“G-gosh, Edge, your lasagna was terrifyingly amazing! Your personality sure shines through in y-your dish!” Oh it sure is terrifying.

“Nyah hah hah hah! Why of course a puny human like you would enjoy my dish! I suppose it  **was** a good choice to omit the glass. If I  **did** serve you my usual recipe, you would not be able to handle its amazingness!” He almost put  **what** . I started to sweat at what would have happened if he didn't make that choice. God, I may need to help these boys make a  **proper** dish.

“Hey dollface, you lookin’ a lil’ pale there.  **Fox** got yer  **tongue** ? You ready to  **throw up** the competition?” I heard Red and Slim let out a low, menacing chuckle as their brothers groaned. 

“Yeah, uh, you're not looking too hot. Do you need some water or something?” Sans asked with a concern in his eyes. Oh god, I got myself in this mess and by god I  **will** see it through, the four of them **did** work really hard on these dishes…

“N-no, I'm just fine. I just needed a tiny breather from all these… Wonderful foods I'm tasting, too much of a good thing at once can be quite overwhelming!” I lied through my teeth as Blueberry and Papyrus’s expressions blew up with happiness while Edge and Black’s faces seem to soften, at least, for a split second. I just heard Sans let out a sigh of defeat as Red and Slim seem to raised their brows as if I was crazy. I probably just might be.

I finally cut into a piece of Black’s dish, which seem to release more spices in the air almost causing my eyes to water. I quickly shoved the piece into my mouth and I immediately regret everything in my life. If there weren't tears coming out before,  they sure are now.

“Oh, pathetic human! I see my dish has brought you to tears at how marvelous it is!” I make my best attempt to swallow the final bite. Oh god, it felt as if molten lava was going down my throat, the food practically seared my insides as it traveled to my stomach. Quite honestly, if Black’s food wasn’t lava on a plate, it would have been the most edible. 

“H-haha. B-Black, your d-dish was very passionate and intense like you! I-I’m just not quite used to such frenzied cooking!” Black’s eye sockets seem to widen as his face gained a maroon tint but quickly disappeared as he started to laugh victoriously.

“Mwah hah hah! You handled my food much better than expected, wench! Perhaps I will cook for you again if I feel like it.” Oh god please no.

“That’s good and all Black, but, Ms. Alice hasn’t decided on which dish she liked the most! This was a competition after all!” Blueberry said in a bit of a smug tone. I’ll give Blueberry’s cooking this, at least I don’t have second degree burns in my throat, probably…

“Oh! Yes, that’s right. The winner,” I looked at the four dishes in front of me as I started to sweat, both from Black’s food and the many pairs of eye sockets looking at me, expectantly awaiting my answer. “They were all… Wonderful. And quite frankly amazing dishes that I simply cannot choose between!” The tension in the air had died down as everyone seemed to relax more, Papyrus and Blueberry looking slightly disappointed while Edge and Black just glared and grumbled.

“I-I have an idea! Perhaps I can help you all with cooking, I could take some notes on how you all are able to cook so well! Also, assistance is always quite useful, especially in the kitchen.” I suggested to the four skeletons, the two more excitable monsters immediately regained their smiles back as the other two just scoffed.

“Wowzers! That’d be really great!”

“Nyeh heh heh! I would enjoy that very much!”

“I suppose you can help me, the mighty and terrible Edge! Just do not get in my way.”

“I don’t see any reason to bring in a pet into the kitchen, but I suppose you  **could** watch my cooking prowess!” Black finally said. Wait, pet? Suddenly, there was a loud knocking at the door.

“Oh! Undyne and the others are here!” Papyrus said as he quickly ran to the door. Undyne?

“Sorry, Ms. Alice, but it’s time for our training! We’ll be back soon, I promise!” Blueberry informed me as he dashed to the door with the other two, leaving me alone with their brothers and G and Aster. I let out the breath I was unconsciously holding, I felt a bony hand on my shoulder, oh dear I can feel that sparking feeling course throughout my body again, I looked over at who it was.

“Uhm, are you alright my dear? You look as if you are going to pass out.” Aster said worriedly, Red butts into the conversation.

“ ‘Course dollface ain’t alright, she tried all their fuckin’ cookin’. Even Black! Fuckin’ Black! I’m just surprised she ain’t meltin’.” Red surprisingly sounded quite worried, huh, I guess he really is just a softie under that thick jacket. I try to move away from the physical contact only for me to fall face first off the chair and onto the ground. I heard a few surprised gasps as a few of them ran to my side.

“H-hey kid, you need us to carry you back to your room or something?” Even with my face down, I could tell it was Sans, who sounded quite worried.

“Haha… It’s okay, can I just g-get something to drink, please? My throat is on f-fire.”

“I’ll go get it, hun,” And just as quickly as Stretch said that, he came back with a glass of milk in hand. “Milk usually helps better with spicy foods from what I’ve seen with Swap.” I slowly sat up and took the glass, drinking it like a man finding an oasis in the desert. I could hear Slim snickering in the living room.

“Damn sugar, you really dug your  **grave** in that one. Can’t believe you actually did that.” Was he laughing at my pain? How mean! I started to pout at his action.

“ Gonna hafta agree with Slim there, dollface. It’s nice for ya to humor our bros like that, but ya could have said no or somethin’.”

“Well, I didn’t want to let their hard work go to waste, plus they looked way too excited for me to stop them.”  I huffed, still upset with Slim. They all looked at me in surprised before collectively letting out a chuckle.

“Ya sure are somethin’, dollface.” I sat up and I noticed something furry near the foot of the stairs. 

“Well look who we have here. Lil’ foxy is back for more **G-bone**.” Koko growled at G once more before bringing back his view to me, heterochromic eyes boring into me. 

“Oh, hey, Koko. How you feeling?” 

_ “I’m fine. But, are  _ **_you_ ** _ okay? I shouldn’t have left you with them, you look exhausted!” _ I pouted again. It’s not like they were trying to kill me, well, Edge probably would have if he didn’t omit the glass. I quickly jump onto my feet, a bit dizzy but on my feet nonetheless, to reassure Koko of my condition.

“Don’t worry! See? I’m just fine!” Koko looked at me skeptically before walking to my legs. I picked him up like I always had, cradling him like a baby. Koko just grumbled in this position as I giggled. What a grumpy little baby. 

“Alice. This is is embarrassing.”

“What do you mean, Koko? We would do this all the time!” I could hear G snicker.

“Lil’ bitey is actually a little mama’s boy, huh?” Koko growled as he struggled in my arms.

_ “I’ll show you, you disgusting scratching post! I’m gonna use your legs as my teeth sharpener!” _ I let out a gasp at his aggressive words.

“Koko! What is with you? Stop trying to fight him and apologize already! Where did you learn those words anyway?”

_ “Alice, I told you before that I can’t.” _

“What do you mean you can’t apologize?” Is he scared they’re gonna punish him? I already patted his butt, that should be enough of a punishment.

“I think it’s cause we don’t understand him, hun.” Stretch simply said as he took out a lollipop from his pocket. Wait, what?

“You guys can’t?”

“We may be monsters, doll, but we still can’t understand animals. They ain’t really monsters.” But… There were a bunch of different big dogs in grandpa’s book, aren’t they just basically animals?

“But, there were a bunch of dogs in grandpa’s journal, they looked like normal pups.”

“Oh, them? Yeah, uh, they may look like one but they can actually talk like us.” 

“O-oh…” Then. Oh god, I must have looked like some kind of freak whenever I was talking to Koko. Just some insane woman living in the middle of nowhere! I could feel my face heat up.  **They probably only brought me so they felt less guilty in taking grandfather’s journals.**

“Heh, you’re lookin’  **cherry** flushed, sweetheart,” Red laughed. I could feel both my flush and humiliation raise from Red’s joke. “Awe, sweetheart, you sure get embarrassed in a  **heartbeet** ,” After Red made another joke, he slowly stopped laughing, as he saw me. What kind of face was I making? “Awe, doll, I was jus’ havin’ some  **fun** . You don’t gotta look like that.” 

**F̶̡̡͖̗̎̑̔̈́̈́̈͋͗ú̵̙̒ñ̸̢̧̫͖͍̥͉̘̐̅̀̏̀̋̚͝** …?

That’s what he said too, having  **f̶̢̰̱̩̝͙̟̈́̌̏̽̇̈́͘͝u̴͙̻̟̱͌̇̾̉͝n̴̡̡̙͇͙̉̿̌̔͝** . I heard more chuckles around me, I could hear the laughing all around me at this point, were they even from the rest them? I can’t tell anymore. My head hung low as more and more laughter surrounded me. Laughing  **at** me. That demeaning laughter.  **Those damn humans laughing at me.**

**_Laughing at what they took from me._ **

_ “Hahahaha! Damn, this brat’s makes for a great punching bag! Awe, you gonna call for your hideous mommy? Don’t worry, once we find that fox, we’re gonna have lots of  _ **_fun_ ** _ with you and her.” I felt the man’s grip on my head tightened as he said that, bringing the lead pipe closer to my face as I continued to scream. The two men’s laughter echoed through the forest. _

“H-hey, doll, I was jus’ kiddin’... You alright?” I looked at Red without raising my head. I could now feel everyone’s gaze practically snapin my direction, they all looked more wary as they saw me, taking a step back. Sans, Stretch, and Slim looked looked the most tense, as if they are prepared to bring something out.

“K-kid, it was jus’ a joke. W-what’s with that look, huh? You got a  **bone** ta pick with me? Huh?” I unconsciously held Koko closer to me. What did I look like to them? Why did they all look at me with fear? Why are they ready to attack? Did I… Use it on them?

_ “Alice? Are you alright?” _ **I want to go back home. I miss my mama and papa. Why did they leave me all alone? Why does everyone leave me? Am I really unable to be truly happy? Is someone like me just that despised by fate?**

 

**_I just want to disappear already._ **

 

“ Wha- what the fuck?! The hell did she go?!” Red growled, the tension in the air still not lifted. Anyone that was prepared to summon a weapon had relaxed themselves. No one seems to be able to see me, but, I was very much still in the room. 

“Well, we figured out what else she can do. Two more to be exact.” G said, standing up from the couch.

“You think she teleported?” Sans asked, looking around the room suspiciously.

“Nah, sugar’s here somewhere. I can feel her soul, but jus’ faintly. How you holdin’ up Red?” Red, despite not having lungs or sweat glands, seem to be breathing heavily and looked like a red fountain. “You haven’t sweated this much since yer boss got seriously pissed at ya that one time.” Red practically jumped when he finally heard Slim’s question.

“Y-yeah. I jus’... Was reminded by a buncha shit when she gave me that glare. What did I even say wrong?”

“Perhaps, it was because you were kept teasing her while she looked thoroughly humiliated, Red.” Aster scolded the shorter skeleton.

“I was just fuckin’ jokin’! I didn’t think that’s how she’d react!”

“Then there is probably more to her story then simply having a tantrum when being teased,” Aster concluded as Red looked down with guilt. “That goes for you three as well,” He said as he pointed to Stretch, Sans, and Slim. “She looked absolutely terrified! And the first thing you do is attempt to fight with an  _ unarmed _ girl?” Sans down looking as if the guilt hit him ten folds, Stretch just looked away, G kept silent as he kept eye contact with where I stood, and Slim just shrugged as he brought out a cigarette, lighting it up.  **It smells like those men.** My legs started to run on their own to the stairs. I don’t want to be in this room anymore. As I reached the top of the stairs, I could faintly hear G’s voice from the living room.

“Seems like little princess and her fox are heading back up.” I try my best to get into my room as fast as possible. Before my invisibility ran out of time, I reached the attic where I locked my door and placed Koko on the bed.

_ “Alice, how are you feeling? You haven’t used that power in a long time… Are you tired?”  _ I couldn’t even answer Koko anymore, I could only curl up with my knees to my chest on the bed.  **I could still hear those damn humans’ laugh.** I placed my hand over my ears to block out the horrible cackling. I could feel Koko paw at my knee but I can’t hear or understand what he’s saying anymore.  **It’s still there. It’s still** **_fucking_ ** **there. Go** **_away_ ** **already. Leave me** **_alone_ ** **.**

**_Get away from me!_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the poll for the reader's name and description:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331909~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> And here is the poll for the story's future rating:  
>  ~~https://www.strawpoll.me/17331924~~ (Polls have been decided! Results are in Chapter 8!)
> 
> (Both polls end tomorrow, so make sure to vote if you haven't yet!)
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)
> 
> (Pst, I also write headcanons too, stop by if you wanna request some stuff)


	8. Think about What You've Done (PLEASE READ NOTES FOR POLL RESULTS)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> __  
>  **“Leave me and mama alone. Don’t take away my mama."**   
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the results have been decided for the reader's name and description and the results is that **it will stay the same.** But worry not for those who prefer a nameless reader! If you use Google Chrome, then there is an extension available called "Interactive fics" where it can rename y/n to any name or replace any word with any of your choice! Absolutely free!
> 
> Words that are used to describe the reader in this story/their names to make the search easier for users:  
> Alice  
> long black hair  
> tan skin  
> violet
> 
> Next is the poll for the rating and since most of the votes seem to be towards more neutral I have decided **I will make the story E, however, once the smut chapter comes (ha) I will create warnings in the notes and separate the smutty parts via lines**
> 
> Here's my tumblr: [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)  
> (Headcanons are open rn! So send a request if you want!)

Aster glared at everyone he could in the room. For judges, they sure are terrible at judging how others feel.

“Are all of you just going to stand here and wallow in your self pity?” Aster finally said to everyone. Sans seem to react first, almost in a panic.

“She looked like she was about to attack, her eyes were--”

“Do you not remember what Stretch said? That is just how her powers seem to work despite having no EXP or LOVE. Furthermore, what **can** she do when she’s **unarmed**?” Sans flinched at every point Aster made. Frisk really got to him more than he thought back in the underground. Shit…

“You all are the ones who snatched her from her own home just so you don’t feel guilty about taking **her** grandfather’s journals. In fact, from what you have told me, Red, you all practically broke into her house, questioned her in her own home, looked through her things without permission, and had her move in. The least you all could do is make her more comfortable in this household.” Aster was absolutely _livid_ , how could they all act like all of this was okay? Like they were in the right?

“I don’t even know what I fuckin’ said that made her act out like that!” Red tried to retort, but quickly gaining a glare from the angered skeleton.

“Then maybe you should pay more attention to your soulmate’s emotional state, Red. That goes for the rest of you as well, when she feels better, you all **will** apologize to her.” Everyone stayed quiet as Aster headed to Alice’s room. The room was tense until Red finally cut the atmosphere.

“God, we’re real fuckin’ assholes, aren’t we?” Sans walked over to the couches to sit down and buried his face in his hands.

“Yeah. We are.”

“Least we found out more of what she’s capable of.”

“Slim, jus’ shut the fuck up.” The tall skeleton just shrugged as he took a drag from the cigarette.

* * *

 Aster was so damn frustrated at everyone, how can they just take her from her home and still act like they are in the right? He looked down guiltily, why couldn’t **he** move at the time? She was hurting, but, his legs just wouldn’t move… As he approached the attic, he could hear a loud scratching sound coming from the door. The glasses wearing monster attempted open the door only to find out it was locked, but as the door rattled, whines could be heard from the otherside. Oh god, what was happening? Why was her fox scratching at the door like this? His soul began to pulse at almost a breakneck speed, was this how she was feeling?

“Alice, are doing alright? Please answer, it’s me, Aster.” There was no response from her, however, the fox began to make a screaming like noise as if calling for help. Oh something is definitely wrong here. Aster took a breath. He does not enjoy teleporting into someone else’s room, but if he must, he will. When he teleported into the room, he was met an extremely stiff atmosphere. If he had any lungs he would be choking at this moment. The white morph fox noticed Aster in the room and bit his pants to try to bring him to the curled up girl on the bed who had not noticed anything around her. Her eyes were wide as her grip on her own hair tightened, she was mumbling something but Aster could not make out what was said. As the tall skeleton came closer, he could clearly her murmuring.

**“Leave me and mama alone. Don’t take away my mama. Don’t touch Koko.** **_I don’t want to have fun_ ** **.** **_I don’t want to have fun_ ** **.** **_I don’t want to have fun_ ** **.** **_Get away from me._ ** **”** She her breathing was heavy and fast. She was having an anxiety attack. Aster sat near the anxiety ridden girl’s curled up form, but not too close just in case she becomes more panicked at his presence.

“Alice, my dear, please listen to me. Just listen to my voice,” The small girl’s shoulders jumped from his voice, but her breathing normalized as he continued to speak. “It’s going to be alright, my dear. Just focus on my voice. You’re safe, no one is going to hurt you,” Well, they were about to attack her if she hadn’t gone invisible like that, but Aster couldn’t tell the anxious girl that. “No one is going to take anyone away,” Alice grip in her hair had loosened as she uncurled herself. “Yes, that is much better. You’re doing wonderfully, my dear,” she started to look up from her position, the fox had long since stopped yelling in favor of rubbing his head on her leg and side.

“W-what happened? Oh, I'm so tired… What's wrong Koko?” The white morph vulpine had begun whining once more, but it didn’t sound like when it was calling for help. Alice’s eyes widened in shock as her head shot up to meet Aster’s eye sockets, she started tearing up in guilt and shame.

“A-Aster! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to act out like that, I-I just, I just felt s-s-so—” Her breathing began to be unstable again as she attempted to grip her hair once more, but Aster caught her hands before they could further damage.

“Alice, it’s alright. It’s not your fault, you were just scared. Now, please try to relax yourself first,” The ravenette nodded her head as she slowly breathed and the worried fox moved his head onto her lap, attempting to reassure her. My, my, what a good friend.

“Your family member cares about you quite a bit,” Without realizing, Aster slowly brought his hand near the fox who looked at it cautiously and sniffed him. “Don't worry, I'll be sure to protect her properly from now on, you have my promise,” The white morph stared at him warily, just before it lazily plopped its head on top of the skeleton’s palm. “He is quite the bodyguard, Alice.” Aster said softly, the girl gave a tiny, warm smile at the scene in front of her.

“He sure is.”

“So, what happened when Red was teasing you?” He has a hunch on what the trigger word might have been but, it is best not to have any misunderstandings. Her little smile then became a frown as she remembered what happened. She started to fiddle with the edges of her bed’s blanket.

“Uhm, I jus’ remembered a really bad memory. About my mama…” Her mother? Oh dear. Everyone should be informed as soon as possible.

“I see… Were there mean people who had said a certain thing to you?” She nodded solemnly as she stroked the white fox’s back.

“These two mean men have been looking for Koko. An’ they had these pipes an’ guns with ‘em. Then they… ” The small girl started to tear up at the memory. There certainly was more to it than a simple tantrum from feeling embarrassment. Aster placed his hand on her cheek, wiping away the tears that stained her face.

“It’s alright, my dear, you don’t have to say anymore than that,” He wrapped his arms around her, embracing her as he reassuringly stroked her head. “You’re safe now.” She sniffled as he held her with an unexpected warmth.

“I-I should go apologize to everyone for acting like that.”

“No, no. You’re just fine, you should rest for now. You must be exhausted.” He laid her down and tucked her into bed.

“But I--”

“No buts, you need to rest. Okay?” She hesitantly gave a weak nod before quickly drifting off to sleep. Koko curled up next to her side but not before giving Aster one last look of suspicion. Aster let out a content sigh, quite the bodyguard indeed. He decided to give her a CHECK to see how she was faring up.

**_“Alice”_ **

**_LV: 1_ **

**_EXP:0_ **

**_HP: 2/10_ **

**_ATK: ???_ **

**_DEF:20_ **

**“She still feels really guilty for using her powers on everyone. Misses her mother more than ever.”**

Aster frowned at the description but the HP was what caught his eye the most. That certainly is not good, she needs to be healed right away! Perhaps it is best for her to have a breakfast in bed. With real food. Aster unlocked the door to get out of the room and slowly closed her door so he didn't disturb her. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs with a question on his mind.

“ **How** did she lose so much HP? No one actually attacked and the cooking shouldn't have affected her HP like that…Not to mention how low the maximum was for someone her age. I should let everyone know what happened. At the very least they deserve a warning so this does not happen again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)   
> 


	9. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Doesn’t that name sound oddly familiar, bro? Haven’t we seen those powers before too?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short but since I posted three other chapters in this week, I think it's a bit forgivable. This chapter I am admittedly not proud of but eh.
> 
> If you didn't read the notes to the last chapter but did for this one, idk why, but the results of the poll have been decided. Th reader's names and description will stay the same and for those who want to change it, you can use a free extension called "interactive fics" that is on Google Chorme. As for the rating, it **will** be Explicit but I will make sure to separate the smut scenes so it can be skippable.
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

God, what the fucking hell did he do wrong? Was it something he said? **God** , why does he always mess shit up?! Red laid on his messy bed, staring at the ceiling. Back then, he felt this strong mix of emotions crawl over his bones when her vibrant crimson eyes made contact with his. He practically felt his soul screeching, _aching_ to be released. Come on Red, think, _think_! What did you say for her to act like that?!

_“Awe, doll, I was jus’ havin’ some_ **_fun_ ** _. You don’t gotta look like that.” Almost immediately, the girl’s head lowered, her hair covering her face. She held her friend closer to her as if he'd be taken from her the moment she lets go. She had begun muttering words he couldn't hear clearly._

Shit… Red groaned in frustration, he hates all this fucking emotional shit. He hates how fucking helpless he feels in these sort of situations. A sharp knock at his door interrupted his thoughts, what the hell do they want now? As if reading his mind, Sans’s voice answered.

“Hey, Red, Aster’s callin’ us for an important meeting in the lab, we’re gonna be down there in a couple of minutes so be ready.” Red groaned an ‘okay’ as he sat up on his bed, rubbing his skull. The meeting is probably gonna be about her. Red placed his face in his hands and grumbles at the memory.

Just, what the fuck can he do? He didn’t even know he had a soulmate in the first place, not to mention, she looks so… So, delicate! She looks like she was basically glass! But… Back then. She looked like she could **kill** . Her innocent appearance mixed with those red eyes… Those **fucking red eyes**. Red could feel the chill in his spine return, he shook his head from the thoughts. He’s on the surface now, with everyone else. Fell is in Shita’s care so he doesn’t do any of that shit again. Red stood from his bed and put on his large furred jacket and headed down to the lab.

Now’s to hoping for less scoldings.

* * *

 G sat at his computer desk in his dark room taking a long drag of hic cigarette. That outburst was certainly just like his brother, always so much more emotional. The skeleton shrugged, the sooner they get this project done, the easier everything will be for everyone in the long run, a soulmate would just be an inconvenience in this situation. Although, G had to admit, her mysterious powers certainly caught his attention, he wanted to find out more. More of what she’s capable of. More about what she is. More about… her. G immediately shook his head, she’s just another guest, who happens to be everyone’s soulmate. She would just be unnecessary trouble in the thick of it all. All they need is her journals, nothing more and nothing less. Speaking of journals, G remembered the names signed on each one. Could it be **him** ? It’s not a common name either, the only other person G knew that had that name was… **That** monster’s. Now that he thinks about it, the writing was just like that man’s, not to mention Alice’s powers seemed like a weaker version of **his**. However, that man was long since dead in G’s world. But, perhaps it’s different in this strange, merged universe. Perhaps, he may have a chance to finally see that man again.

His--

A sharp knock made G jump from his concentrated thoughts. Who could that be? Is his brother going to give him a personal scolding?

“Hey G, your bro’s callin’ a meeting in the lab. We gotta be there as soon as possible. It’s important.” Stretch’s tired voice came from outside his door. Ah, another group scolding. It’s most likely going to consist of Alice and the project. G sighed as he stood up, snuffing his cigarette in the nearby ashtray on his desk.

He he should let everyone know about the new information. But, will they believe him? The other judges wouldn't have memories of that monster, furthermore, the whole thought is just a theory… But, it’s information nonetheless. G gave one last stretch before heading down to the lab.

* * *

 Aster sat near the journals that had accumulated at the table, once everyone had arrived, Aster looked at them all sternly.

“Alice is now fast asleep, however, she seemed to have lost more than two thirds of her HP after that incident.” Sans looked in the other skeleton in shock.

“Wait, how? No one attacked!”

“Yes, but, she actually did use her powers during that event, furthermore, when I arrived in her room, she was having an anxiety attack. If I had arrived any later, she would have fallen down,” Red winced at that statement, dammit, why was he fucking like this? “She reacted strongly to the word ‘fun’, she said there was… A particularly bad encounter with someone when she was younger. Once your brothers arrive home, they should be informed as well,” Aster said as everyone nodded, keeping note of the trigger word. “Once she wakes up, I want you all to come clean to her. As well as an apology, that includes you too brother!” G just shrugged as Red and Sans looked away in guilt. Aster started to think about another possible reason as to how her HP was lost so significantly.

“This is just a theory, but, the HP loss may have to do with her powers.”

“Whaddya mean, glasses?”

“What I am saying is that, using her powers takes from her HP rather than magic, considering she seems mostly human.” G chuckled at Aster’s statement, causing the shorter skeleton to receive a glare from his brother.

“Now, what is so funny, brother?”

“It’s just that she might be much less human than we think.”

“Wow, what threw ya off sherlock? It couldn’t have been her fuckin’ red eyes.”

“Lotta talk for a monster who was practically rattling his bones the moment a little girl looked at him,” G retorted causing Red to growl in anger. The taller skeleton just continued his thoughts. “Do you all remember the name these journals had?”

“Yeah, it was Nathair, right? What about it?” G gave his brother a knowing smirk as Sans questioned him.

“Doesn’t that name sound oddly familiar, bro? Haven’t we seen those powers before too?” Aster’s eyes widened as it finally clicked.

“You don’t mean… **Him** , do you, brother? She admittedly reminds me a bit of him, but he’s long since dead, at least… In our home.”

“Woah, woah, who the hell’re you guys goin’ on about? You two knew her gramps or something?” Aster glanced at G with a worried expression.

“Yes and no. This person G is speaking of is actually someone your older brothers knew. Because of our accident, we do not have full memories of the people we used to be, only patches… However, we **do** know that this person was in a similar incident you all had with your brothers.” Aster said with a solemn expression, bits and pieces of memories flooding his mind.

“Wait, so, there’s this person that used ta work with our bro that even **we** don’t remember?” Red asked in confusion. Aster looked away with a sad expression as G nodded, bringing out a cigarette and lighting it up.

“Yup, you all weren’t the only ones who was trying to bring someone back.” Sans looked down at his hands as G took a long drag from the cigarette.

“So. Who was this guy to our brother?” Aster and G looked at each other hesitantly before answering.

“That monster was his **friend**.”

“And **mentor**.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	10. Dreams and Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I-it’s alright--”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“No. It’s really not. The last thing we wanted to do is hurt you.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“No, r-really, it’s fine--”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“Like hell it is! We… **I** really hurt ya back there.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey more art in this chapter  
> But it's lazy art cause I'm not in tip top shape today

_Back here again… I looked forward and saw a person’s back facing me a couple feet away, there’s someone here with me. A human? They wore a green and yellow striped sweater and had brown hair… My chest tightened as I inspected them, why are they so familiar to me? As I tried to move closer, my legs felt heavy with every step I took. But, I want to know who this person is, why are they here, and why they make me feel so… Sad. As I continued further, it felt harder to move, as if something was holding me back, slithering itself around my legs. It only made me want to continue, I want to see this person. I want to know why I want to hold them close and never let go!_

__

_I tried to scream their name but it felt as if something was blocking my voice, as if something wrapped itself around my neck. I took a deep breath as I continued to run to them, I tried to scream once more despite it sounding more like a weep. But, this time, the figure’s shoulders twitched. Slowly, the figure turned themselves to face me, however just before I could see their face, they were wrapped up in black coils and dragged under the ground before them. I looked at the spot where they stood with terrified eyes, I could feel large tears flow down my face just before letting out a blood curdling scream._

 

_“C̷̊͒̃҉͓͇̲̬͢ͅh̴̡̡̖̹͙͇͙͖̼̮̯̦̺ͫ͊̀̉̓̅̌ͧ̌ͦ̈ͦ͂̒ạ̷̛̦̱͈ͩͫ̇̾̐̂̊̈́̊͂̈́̍́̒͠r̨̥̜̖̩̖̭̩͉ͭͦ̎ͭ̕͘ͅáͥ͒ͣ̌ͯ̄̔̿̈́͘͏̗̩̯̰̕͜͡!̸̡̛̭̟̞̫̮̟̟͈͖̗̖͗̒̽̑̓ͯͤͮ̒ͬ̔ͪ͐̚͞”_

 

_I dropped to my knees as I wept, the slithering coils that had taken that person started to wrap itself around my legs, slowly engulfing me into the darkness with it. I had stopped caring at that point, my face rested in the palms of my hands as the tears continued to fall._

_“Oh, angel cakes, you giving up already?”_

_It was that voice again! But at the same time not? This voice had a similar energy like the last one but was slightly more raspy and mischievous. I raised my head as an attempt to look for that voice._

_“Awe, baby cakes is lookin’ for little old me? I’m flattered, but first, you have to snap out of it, deary. Most of the things here just love to play mind tricks, that’s how they keep you.” My tears had long since dried, my expression was replaced with confusion._

_“Mind tricks? So then that person… Was never real?” The voice let out a chuckle at my question._

_“If you are asking if that person in particular ever existed, I assure you they are, in fact, very real. But, whatever happens to them in this landscape or anything for that matter, is not. This place can take the people of your past and distort or torture them to its pleasing, as long as you give up, it will do anything.” I stood up from my sitting position, the coils’ grip around my legs had weakened once the voice arrived._

_“Does that mean you’re not real either?”_

_“I assure you angel cake, I am very real. As well as my colleagues that reside here alongside me. We are the exception actually.” This only confused me more, if nothing here is real then wouldn’t his statement just now be a lie?_

_“How do I know you’re not lying?”_

_“Fufufu, close your eyes and take a few steps forward then.” That… Does not really answer my question. I looked around, still all black. There’s no other choices here, I take a deep breath before obeying the voice’s command. I then bump into a torso like the last time, however, this figure felt taller. I felt a hand rubbing my head, oh, that felt quite nice._

_“Now deary, here is the thing, the person keeping us here has our bodies, right now, what your feeling is my bare soul._

 

_T̵̂ͣ̇͊̂h̼̰̬͕͋̀̌ͯ̐ͅė͙͙̱̻̈́̉ͭ̈͆͢ ̫̙͂ͯ͌o̍ͬ̆̏͜n̸͇̤̘̗̹̋͌ḷ͇̝̤ͣͥ̍̿͐̚y̠͎͔͐͟ͅ ̥̩̖͖̈́͠w̳̔a̬͈̘̟̬ͮͥ̑ͭͣ̚͘ỳ̦̑ͥ̂ ṫ̨͇͙̝̲̙̟̪͔̐̅̐̊̂̂̚͢o̥̥̦̜̹̓̀̑͂ͮ̃͛͘͜ ̤̻͍͚̱̾̐̏̄͌̊̀ͧ͢ͅg̣̭̺͈̱̽̀̿̒ḙ̡̢̼̰̠̯̋̔̊̍͑̃̓̅ͬt̶̻̲̝̮̬͕̟͗͘͞ ̛̟̪̞̤̺ͩ̽͋ͯ͘u̴̶͚͇̼͗̓͋ͬ̏ͩ̉͜ṣ̟͖̗̗̗͚͈̅̂̆ͬ̊͆͘ ̧͇̯͔̬ͩ͐͆ͥ̓ọ̳͕̲̎͛̕ū̡̞̦͙͔̜͍̏̓͗͌̑͊͢ṯ̭̹͓͍͇͙̪̓̽̎̊͗̃͌͞͞ ̴̳̙̘̪̠͑̾̔ͧͦ̚o̸͈̣̖͙͖̫̭͐̃̌͟f̵̶̗͇̄̍́ ̸̦͕̦͊͗̓́h̛͔̬̆ͨͦͨ͗̈́͋ͤ̍͢͢ͅë͙̝̝̰́̊͊̒̃̒̐͝r̯͚̪̯̺̩͇̳ͤͨ̓ͤ͡ë̡̩̺̼͍͙̺͈͎́̓̀͢ ̖͍͍̮̯̟̖̠̈̀͊͝i͇̖̘͕̳ͩ̈͡͞s̡̟̱͖̲̽̿ͥ̆ͥ̚ ͎͖̖͚͇̭̠̯̞̂͂͆͌̃͋t̵̟̳̬̘̭͈̝̥ͩ͋ͯo̢̯̣̼͇͆ͫͭ͋ h͙͇̦͚̫̜̱̟̹̻ͪ̏̂ͥ͒̿͒̐̀̓̕͡ěͯ̈̾҉̴̡̳̻̳̜͜a̧͖̪͈̞̯̜͉̥̪̘̗͖̪̬̱͍̹̎́́̊̔̇͒̾ͤ͑̋̈ͤ͐̾̉̌͞͝ͅl̶̵̵͈̭̳̻̩̫̓̄͆͗͑̏̄̋̅̆̂̚͡ ̸̷̘̼̤̠̝̦͉͈͔̦̻̬̟͕̣̭̫̟̘ͫ͑ͫ͆̽ͯ̀ͤ̑͒̎ͦͭ̕͟oͫ̈́ͨ̇ͤͩͮͩ̌́̄̆͒͐̔͏̢̜̥͍͓͎̹̼̯̹̘̼͉͕u̷̸͔̹͍̮͙̱͈̭̫͙̭̰̼̺̩̭̞̅͐̀ͪ́ͭͩ̒ͥ̇͂ͭͅr̴̨͓̤̺̺̦͙̟̬̳͚̥̘̎̈͌͌̇̍́ͥ͌̀̎ͬͪ̈́̅ͨͤ̕͜͢ ̶̸̷̧̲̳̳̤͚̻͍̮̪̺̘̩̦͎͙̒̎̾ͧ͗̐̓̃ͧ̊ͣ̅ͦ͂̌͛ͥ̚̚͝ͅb̴̢̯̻̰̭̟͊ͬ͗ͤ̆͆̓͑̏ͨ̄̚rͪͧ͆͊̉͒ͥ҉̸͏̵̦̖̪̘̕o̸̶̞͍̗̖̪̣͉̺̜͖̠͙͚͇̺̮̔̊̃̑͑̌̌̃̅̽͋̆ͭ͒̇ͬ͊̒͟tͭͧ̇̃̐̽҉̵̰̫̠̩̖̲̱̣͉̣̲̼͈͜ͅh̷̿ͬͤ̉̊̋̌̅̀̃͛̀̇̓ͥͥ̚҉̜͖̼̹̤̣̭͎̟͈̦͎̬̘̦͟eͤ̈́ͮͣ̓͊̄͘҉̮̥̦̞̻̪̫̜͕̣̱̝͟͡ͅr̷̨̢̮̜̯͇̱̳̺̩̲̂ͪ͆͌̽̌̆̌̄ͤ̋̍̑ͮ͝s͑̃͐̏̄̎̐͂ͩ̓̐̾̈́͐̈́͋͏͉̬̘̲̘̟͍̮͔̼͇̺͓͇͜͢͡͝’̶͔̖̻̩̠ͤͫ̇͛̽̐͛͡ ̨̯͇͎̹̳̭͕̐̈͌́̓ͨ̆͛͒͌̓̀̀s͚̖͕̞̬̼͚͓̯̘ͤ̓͊̾̉̐ͦ̌̽ͮ͐̚͜͞o̢̒́ͦ̒͏̣̠̳̞̫̘̺̰̘̼͙̝̣͠͡ͅͅu̡̫̜̙̖̝̮̝̜̮͈̥̖̰̝̤͉̐̏̊͂ͣͧ͠͠lͯ̔̽ͭ̊̉ͭ͑͛̚҉̨̡̺͓̘̘͕̳͎͉̝͔̥̭͚͉̱͉̼̕ṡ̩͇̘͚̯̪͎̺̯̲͚̖̩̞̳͕̰ͨ̒ͧͦ͋̈́ͯ̓͐͆͋̎͢͢ ̷͈͖̠̗̱͍̩̞̝̫͕ͦ̊͗ͮͣͨͧ̿͗͑ͣͥ̓̾ͪ͜ạ̻̝̘̯̪͉̭̣̞̜̜̜̻̈́̑̂̄̑̇̈́ͧ̓͑ͬͫ͑̈ͥ͒͗̚͢͞n̴̘̣̮̤̰̙̬̠̭͓̫̤̟̰̦ͫ͒̿͑͝ͅd̛̛̘͓̣̺̺̞̝͔ͫ̎̓͡ ̛̛̜͈̞͕̣͕̟̞͍̍̓͆ͩ̀̍ͤ̐̎ͤ̊͟͠g̯̟̹̞̻̜̻̥̺ͧ̀̓̄̈ͭ͌͟͜͝a̡̱̳̲̟̼͖̗͎̖͇̙̣͉̝͖̭̤͖ͧ̈̓ͦ̀ͪ͂ͮ̽ͮ̍̉̉ͥ̓ͤ̕i̧̭̠̘͈͖̮̲̘̻͕̳̻͉̪͇̖̫͈̺͒̇̀͋̊ͦͯ͜͠n̨͔̣͇͉̗̠̔ͪͤ̏͆̾͑̓̊͌͢ ̧̭̙̱̠̹̻͔̘̜̲̦͇̺͖͇̼͗ͥ̑͊̈́͊ͥ̃ͮͭ̑̆̓͑̽̈͆͒̕ẗ̛̮̫̺̩̲̺͎̱̜͚̜̻͕̰̞̭̖͍́̒̉̊̄̽̄͒̓̃̍ͤ̏ͣ̾ͫ̚h̸̯̖̲̺ͥ͌̈́ͧͮ̇ͯ̓ͪ͂͊̓͛̃̍̾͘ḙ̵̶̘̭͚͍͎̱̰̞̟͚̣̙̦̠͉̠̓͗̒ͣͦͦ̍͗͒̆̄͐͋̾̋̐̐̕͟i̧̓̿ͪ͂̎̎̈́̂͊̔ͤ̆̔̀̒̚͢҉̩̙̟͖̘̮̮͔͇̻͇͘͞ͅr̵̝̣͓͓̭̫͍͈̞̻̣͈͈̝̭̽͊̉̅̄̈́͆̋͌͐͜ͅ ̶̛͖͇̞͉̗̪̫̱͔̗̤͚̞̞͓͌ͬ̉ͭ͛ͪͣ̈ͮͣ̇͞t̷̸̘̪͖̜͙̭̰͍ͯ̾̍̏͑͠r̡̲̻̱͚̩̭̜̝̹̹͆̑ͩͦ̑ͦ̊͞ͅu̸ͥ̾̇͗̏́̈́ͤͫ̑̄̈ͪ͊ͦ̊͏̵̵̹̭̝̥͚͕͟s̛̬͉̟̣̯̬̲̳̣̼͇̣̱̅ͥ͑ͬ̂̇́͋͗̕̕͢͞t̵̴̷̨͍̭̬͇̺̰̹̥͙̯͙̫̦̓̾ͣ̉͊́ͫͨ̾ͣ͆̂̒̊ͤ̉.”_

 

_“I-I’m sorry, I couldn’t understand what you said.”_

 

_“Dͯͫͤͫͥͯ̚҉̰͖͡a̝̙̟̅ͯ̑̔̓m͙͋ͥͣ͐̈ͪ̌ͫ̎͝n̵̨̤̮̮͇̮̪̠̠̹͋ͪ̽̋̄͟,̘͇̺̥ͤ̏͐͌ ̟̝͇͈̈́̀ͣ͐ͪ̇̔͞o̲͖̊̊̌ͫ̾ͭ̚͝ů̡̟̙̩ͫ̐ͮt̘̤̙͈̟̼̺̰̽̇͐̑̉̔ ̨͇̣͖̥̗̞ͨ̿̉o̵͓͕͔̹̐ͤ͝f͍̜̪̃̊̓̅͜ ̨̙̰̿͆̇̒͊ͨͩ͢ţ̦̀͡ȋ͇̝̞̺͍̅̒ͦ͜͞m̸̶̦̼̱͚̳̋̉̐ͭ͊ͥe̸̢͖̐̂.̅̄͋ͩ̅͌͘҉̺̞̰͔̦͎ ̧̻̹͉̻̪͊̓͐A̡̾ͪ͊̒̋̐̒͏̢̭͈͍n̶̗̥̞̬͍̱̈͌͋̍̇̉ͧḡ̴̛͈̫̱̘̠̾ͩ̏̿̚e̴̷̪̬̤͕̤̹̞͈͊̊̊͐͠l͐ͭ͑͝҉̼͕͓̭̹̮͈̫̬ ̵̸̦̗̘̇̇̏̚c͎̦̗̙̣̫ͣͬͫ̈ͦa̻͇̰͉͖ͨ̄̈ͤ̚k̸̭̠̺̱̟̮͙͔͍ͬͫ̌̉e̛͋ͥͬ͑̉ͬ͛҉͉̜̫̦̦̙̩̗͘ṣ̞̪͕͓̜̫̰͚̆ͭ͌̓̈́͘,̷͔̪̳͔͕̲̙̺͌ͩ ͩͮ̒ͫͥͬ͂͏̶̹̩͖͎͟m͈̖̯ͪ̾ͪͦ̑̂̈́͢a̶͔̯̫̮̹͍͔̙̲͑̈̔̐̂ͤͨ̉k͇̫͔͔̝̮̞͔ͨͨͯ͡e̡̠̲͔̘̘ͫ̋̔ͮͨ ̧̲̒̑͐ͪͧ̓̔s̸̺̳̍ͦͩ̈ͭ̂ͥử̸̫̤̥̺̣̲̦̣ͤ͆̆ͅr̴ͦ̒̒̅̆̓҉̱͕̘͈̞̱̪̞e̶̲̟̼͈̤͊ͧ ̬̬̬̤̆̽ͮ̾̄t̸̤͈̍͆͛ͩ̓ͥ̋̒ͥo͓̠̤̜̓ͨ̊̆ͫ͐̚ ̡̤̺̳̲̦̘͆̄̿͑̉͘s͉̳͔̟̼̤͓͂̒̇̐͋̏̎́̓͠t̾͛̂ͪ̽ͥ͂͏̤̠͎̫͇͜͠a̜̮̹̬̩̩̹̖͒ͩ͗̉ͧͫy̫̠͛̅͒ͪ̚ ̸̨̯̘̝̀̃͌ͪ̑͐̚s̹̬̹̳̣̙͔͔ͣ̓̏̂̂̓̑̊̚a̦̰͇͑̈́̀͗̾̿͘f̯̫̟̠͔̿ͤ͞ë̵̠̤̠͕̬͈̼̳ͭ͌ͥͨ̃,̭̻̲̒ͮͫ̅ͮ͗̈́ͥͤ ̶̳̲͚̄͜d̸͕̋ͩ̿̾͗̚e̟̣͙̩̼̗̜͎ͪ̌ͥ́̒̎ͪ̿̏s̴ͪͫͮ͋̈́͆͆͛͏̥͕̠̼̺p͎̰̺̠̣͍̞͉̞ͤ̆̑ͨ͑̆͠i̶̶̥͔ͤͦ͌̐̄̇ͣt̛̮̹̮̝͒́̄ͅȩ͉̯̥̜ͧ̌ ̝̙̣̬̯̻ͥ͢ò͙̞̺̞͔͚̪͔̏u̙̝͕̜̺̣̩̟ͨͦ͒ͩ̽͞r͙̳̙̝͚͂̇͠͡ͅ ̨̞̞̜͖ͨ͌ͯ̆͜b̵̻̾͌̓̅̀ͭ̎͢ŕ̏̃̾ͯ̕҉̬̱̩ȍͯ҉̭͉̲̝͘͟t̶̷͈͖̥̙̳̑̾ͪͤ̾̍͊̽ḣ̴̴̙̞̳̘̘͔͕ͧ̑̌ę̸̖̗͙̘̰͚̟̇́ͦ̃ͤ̔ͯ͋ṟ̴̷̘̰̮ͮ͗ͭͮͬ̋ͅs͉̩̩̙̠̹͈̦͗̎̊̏͡’̣̬̳͍̰̲͍͇̪̍̆ͧ̆̌̅ͨ̋ ̸͉̼͂̂̒ͣͨ̿ś͈̫̂̔̔͊t̯̟͇̯̩̹͙̔ͫ͘͜u̸̯̰̰̩̪̣̳̼͚ͭ̓ͥ͊͂p̠̰̬̖̊ͦ̾͊̉ͅi̍̉̊̊͌͂ͭͤ͏͉͎͉̟͙͉͍d̡ͥ͑͏̱̕ī̯͙̜̝̔ͫ͗͞t̛͓͕̯̰͓͓̝̯͛̇̃̒̿ͪỳ͉̦̯̞͋͗̎.̸̛̦̦̙͎̦̾͋̄̓ͅ We believe in you.” I then felt lips press onto my forehead just before the figure’s body vanished._

My eyes shot open only to be faced with the blue sky and clouds, the glass window over my bed seems a tiny bit smudged. I sat up and felt something furry on my left side. Koko… I must have worried him half to death.

“I’m sorry for scaring you Koko…” The little fox only let out a whine as he shifted himself closer to me. I let out a gentle smile, he is quite the bodyguard. I then remembered the dream and that familiar human figure. Who were they? And why did I want to see them so badly? I could feel my chest ache as I thought about them. What… Am I forgetting? I shook my head, I’ll figure it out soon. Right now, I should apologize to Sans and everyone. Red especially. A gentle knock from my door cut through my thoughts.

“Hello? Alice, my dear, are you awake?” Oh, it was Aster.

“Yes, I’m awake, I’m sorry for sleeping for so long.”

“Oh, you don’t need to apologize, you needed the rest. Could I come in?”

“Ah, yes, just let me get out of bed--” Just before I could get out of the blankets, Aster interrupted me.

“Oh, no, no! You do not need to get out of bed, you still need your rest!” I **am** still quite exhausted, despite just sleeping. The skeleton came into the room with a tray in hand, the tray had a cup of orange juice and a plate with two sandwiches, there was also a bowl full of raw meat and fruit, most likely for Koko. I felt my stomach grumble as I looked at the assortment, Aster chuckled then placed the tray on my lap and moved the bowl to Koko’s face, who started to sniff and immediately his eyes shot open and started to devour the food placed in front of him. The skeleton and I both chuckled at the sight. I looked down at the tray on my lap, oh my, it smells so yummy! I reached for a sandwich slice and took a modest bite. Oh gosh! It was just a sandwich but it was bursting with flavor. I let out a shameful moan as I chewed my food, for a split second I thought there was a faint green glow from Aster’s direction. And just like Koko, I had already finished the food and drink.

“Thank you so much for the food, Aster! It was absolutely delicious!” The skeleton laughed as he placed Koko’s empty bowl and the tray on top of the nightstand.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, my dear, now,” Aster’s expression had become more serious. “I do believe some skeletons owe you an apology.” Just when Aster said that, the five other monsters had just appeared in the room through thin air. Sans stepped forward first.

“Hey, uh, really sorry about that back there kiddo. We didn’t mean to scare you or anything like that.” I gave him a sympathetic look.

“I-it’s alright--”

“No. It’s really not. The last thing we wanted to do is hurt you.”

“No, r-really, it’s fine--” Red let out a frustrated growl.

“Like hell it is! We… **I** really hurt ya back there.” Red’s head hung low in guilt, my heart wept at Red’s sad form. Without realizing, I had gotten out of bed and stood in front of Red. My hand hesitantly reached for his face, his shoulders jumped at the contact and looked into my eyes with widened eye sockets. I could feel sparks from the contact.

“It’s alright, Red. I forgive you, you had no idea after all.” I gave him a reassuring smile as he hesitantly wrapped his arms around my waist, his head buried in my shoulder.

“I’m also really sorry… I accidentally used my powers on you, Red.” He stiffened but continued to hold me close to him. He was strangely very warm, but that could just be cause of his big jacket.

“So, princess, out of curiosity, what **did** you do to little cherry over here?” I looked over to G who seemed to have an amused look in his glowing eyes. The others seem to looked in my direction with curiosity and another emotion I could not pinpoint.

“You don’t have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, my dear.” I shook my head at Aster’s suggestion.

“It’s alright. Uhm, from what my grandfather wrote and my experience, it may have been some sort of manipulation thing. But, since I’m not that strong, I may have made Red feel what I felt at the moment.” As I finished my explanation, Red’s held me tighter and closer and mumbling ‘sorry’s. G’s eyes seem to become more amused as his smile widened, while Aster looked quite worried.

“Hey, kid, would… Would it be alright if we asked you some things? If the question makes you uncomfortable, you can always pass on it.” Sans coughed, attempting to lower the tension in the air. I gave him a small nod as I stroked Red’s skull, I felt a low vibration from the skeleton’s chest, oh my, is he purring?

“So, do you know anything about your grandpa? Like, what was he or what kinda job he had?” Grandfather? Mama didn’t really speak too much about him, I shook my head.

“My mother always reacted with a sad expression whenever I asked about him. All I know is that he was really smart and he helped my mom regulate her powers.”

“Why were you there all by yourself in that house? Did you have any other family members like a dad or grandma?” I looked down solemnly as I shook my head.

“ Grandmother died long before I was born, as for my papa… He never came back home,” Sans and Aster looked at me with worried eyes. “But, that’s alright! It was just me and my mother! We had a lot of great memories and…” My mind flashed back to the person in my dream. “There was… Someone else with us. But, they left soon after.” I mumbled, hoping no on heard, Red had finally let me go from his grip and placed his hands in his pockets. Slim took a few steps toward me with a smirk.

“So, were there any visitors at your old place? There **had** to be at least **some** people knockin’ on yer door over the years, dolly.” A kid with rosy red cheeks and brown hair flashed through my mind, their smile brightened the darkest of days. Then, the faces of those **men** interrupted my thoughts, I could feel my heart beat faster, remembering that incident.

“P-pass, please…” Slim looked at me with suspicion just before finally shrugging and walking towards the windows to look outside.

“Alice, dear?”

“Y-yes, Aster?” Aster’s face seemed both worried and confused while looking at me.

“Do you have any other clothes? Your dress, albeit quite cute, seems a bit tattered at the ends.” I blushed in embarrassment. Y-yeah, this dress is quite old.

“Unfortunately, I don’t really. Most of my clothes came from my mother, even then she doesn’t have too much clothes.”

“Hm, then perhaps we can go shopping for new clothes tomorrow?” Aster asked, I gave a small nod. I then felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up to see Sans looking down at me.

“Now, we gotta be honest with you, kid.”

“Honest?”

“Uh, yeah, on why we needed your grandpop’s journals so badly,” Oh, yeah, those books seemed pretty important to them. Sans looked at the others nervously then he looked back to me, taking a deep breath… Somehow. “Four of us were lookin’ for our older bros. They were… In an accident and we think your grandpops was a good friend of theirs.” They were trying to find their family? Oh dear, I hope they find them soon. I am then reminded of the voices I heard in my dreams, they said something about having brothers too… But, they were just crazy dreams, weren’t they?

“We were thinkin’, maybe these journals has a way to save ‘em. Would it be alright that we kept using them?” I gave him a nod as he let out a relieved sigh and let out a quiet ‘thank you so much’. “We’re sorry again for acting like that to you back there…” I shook my head.

“It’s alright, you all were just scared.”

“I think you were in a worse position…” I heard Red quietly mumble out while Sans only looks at me worriedly. I looked down solemnly. It’s okay. I’m just fine.

Just before everyone left the room, Slim placed a hand on top of my head. He patted my head awkwardly, like a child touching a puppy for the first time. I felt that weird tingle again from the contact nonetheless. Just, what are they doing to me?

“Hey, dolly. Could ya not mention this to our bros about this? Actually, don’t talk about our older brothers to anyone but us.” I looked up in his eyes, despite the nonchalant appearance, there was a spark of nervousness in his eyelights. I gave him a nod.

“I promise.” The tall skeleton looked at me in surprise then started to chuckle, bringing out a cigarette from his furry trench coat.

“ ‘m not the best with promises, darlin’. So, you better keep it.” He gave my head one last stroke before disappearing off, leaving me alone with a sleeping Koko. I guess they can teleport, grandpa’s books never mentioned that… Grandpa. Just who was he anyhow? How did he know their older brothers? This whole situation only continued to confuse me more and more. Ugh… Mama, what would you do in this situation? I shook my head, I’ll only worry everyone more if I keep thinking about it.

Maybe I should explore this house a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	11. Reunion?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“S-so, you said this flower can repeat what was last said? Could you demonstrate?”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“Sure thing, Angel.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not that happy with this chapter but eh
> 
> Also, I'm gonna show off the humans' designs next chapter
> 
> ~~EDIT: I completely forgot about this poll I made, Since this story is now rated E, You all can decide who's gonna be the reader's first. Since this story is a slow burn kinda thing, actual smut is gonna take quite a while:[Here is the poll!](https://www.strawpoll.me/17461638)  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)~~

I gave little Koko a peck on the forehead and told him that I’ll be back soon, to which he just shuffled and rubbed his forehead. How adorable! I quietly closed the door and headed down the stairs, my, were the stairs this long last time? I finally reached the second floor full of rooms with names on each door. Each door seems to be decorated similar to the owner’s personality, Papyrus’s door is decorated with bright colors and has “Cool Dude” scrawled on the open space that his name didn’t take up, how cute. Sans on the other hand just wrote his name sloppily written in the corner of his door, with the just kind of looking like it gave up on itself. Edge’s door seems to be wrapped in a tape with “KEEP OUT” written all over it, how did he also tape the hinges of the door? Red’s was pretty simple, a piece of paper taped on his door with his name written. Stretch’s door though, seemed to be filled to the brim with little sticky notes, looks like a conversation between him and Blueberry. Speaking of, Blueberry’s door was painted like the sky, with clouds and all, there seems to be little smiley faces at the corners too. G and Aster had simple little signs on their doors with their name written, albeit on wood this time. I arrived in front of Black and Slim’s doors, Black seems to have many, many spikes glued to the door, I do hope it’s not real, finally, Slim’s door seems to have a little doggy house sign written on the front. Gosh that’s a bunch of skeletons living in one household, I haven’t even looked at the other doors. I should… Stop while I’m ahead, looking at them all may just take me all day.

I headed downstairs to the main room, seems like G arrived before me, he looked like he was napping on the many couches in the room. I quietly walked over to the kitchen, careful not to wake the skeleton up. Oh gosh, even the kitchen was huge. I looked out from one of the room’s windows, the vibrant flowers catching my eyes. I headed outside using the nearby door and strolled into the garden. W-wow… The garden practically had every flower I could imagine, I’ve only seen most of these flowers in my books! Then in the corner of my eye, I saw a glowing patch of cyan flowers. Oh! I haven’t even seen these in the books!

“They’re called Echo flowers, they repeat the last thing they hear.” A raspy low voice said from behind me, I turn to see a familiar tall skeleton with a short furred jacket.

“He-hello G. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“ ‘s alright, princess. Was already awake anyways. What’re you doing out here alone?”

“Oh, I wanted to explore the house a bit, the garden especially. I always picked flowers for my mother when I was younger.” I said softly, G then let out a chuckle as he sat next to me.

“Say, which flower is your favorite?” I puffed up my cheeks as I crossed my arms, going through the catalogue of flowers I’ve encountered.

“I think it’s… Birds of paradise—no! Lily of the valley— no… Jasmines?” I let out a big sigh, I just can’t choose! G let out a loud laugh, a very sincere one, my face flushed from his laugh. Why do they always make me feel like this?!

“You really are his grand kid. He could never choose between favorites, especially when it came to flowers.” I looked at him in surprise, was he talking about… ?

“You mean grandfather? Did you know him?” His smile became one of sadness, as if remembering something.

“Heh. Yeah. He was a teacher of mine. He was like a dad to me. No matter how much I messed up, he was always patient.” The skeleton’s expression soon became bitter, did something bad happened to grandpa? I should change the topic.

“S-so, you said this flower can repeat what was last said? Could you demonstrate?” G looked surprise but quickly changing back to his usual smirk.

“Sure thing, Angel.” The monster then brought his face close to one of the flowers and whispered something to it before returning back and gesturing to bring my ear to the flower. I obeyed and then I heard a soft, little voice.

_“You’re really cute, you know that, princess?”_

I then bolted back and basically ran backwards in surprise, my face starting to overheat again as G let out another loud laugh.

“God, princess! I was expectin’ a small jump but not somethin’ like that! You seriously are cute, Angel.”  My face somehow got redder than it already did, I must look like an apple at this point. G then was right next to me, his arm wrapped around my waist, I-I feel weak in his arms, I can’t push him away. His face was buried in my neck, I felt his lips on my neck. O-oh dear, that feels, really nice, he’s quite warm. I accidentally let out a muffled moan as his lips slowly traveled up my neck and paused when finally reaching my face. His hand was on my cheek to hold my head in place, ever so slowly his face had been inching closer and closer to mine.

Closer.

I could practically feel his breath on my lips.

Closer.

His eyes were hazed with lust and half lidded.

 _Closer_.

Those lips were ghosted above mine…

“SANS, WE’RE BACK FROM TRAINING WITH UNDYNE AND THE OTHERS. THE SMALL HUMANS HAD COME TO VISIT AS WELL!” Papyrus’s screaming voice had cut through the strange hypnosis we were just in. Finally realizing the situation, my face practically exploded with heat. I immediately jumped up out of G’s arms.

“O-o-oh! W-well, it looks like Papyrus and the others f-finally arrived! I-I should go greet them! G-goodbye, G!” Oh god, I dashed back inside like my life depended on it, gosh. My heart couldn’t stop the fast tempo for a second, god, oh god, G almost kissed me. A-and I was letting him! I tried to breath to calm down my fast heart. I stepped into the living room with the other skeletons.

“W-welcome back everyone, how was training?” When I arrived, the monsters appeared to be speaking to eight new figures with their backs turned. Human figures. I took a step back without realizing.

“Oh, Ms. Alice! We need to introduce you to our little human friends!” As I took a good look at the lot of them, one seemed extremely familiar. They wore a green and yellow sweater with shorts and tights and had brown hair. When the they turned around, my heart felt as if it was being stabbed. Rosy red cheeks. When they saw me, they seemed to be in shock as well. There was a long stretch of silence between us.

“U-uh, Ms. Alice, human. Are you two alr—” Before Blue could finish his sentence, the brunette had suddenly yelled out before running and practically jumping on me with a tight hug.

“H-Hydra!” This warm sweater, those rosy red cheeks, the chocolate colored hair. A memory long forgotten had flashed through my mind.

_“Hmmm, we should give each other nicknames!”_

_“Nicknames?”_

_“Mhm! Like, what I call Kokonut!”_

_“Oh! Okay then! What shall our names be then?”_

_“Hmm… Oh! I’m gonna call you Hydra from now on, cause of your scales!”_

_“Wha— Then I’m calling you Truffles cause you always steal the chocolates!”_

_“I don’t do that_ **_all_ ** _the time… ”_

_“You are holding one right now!”_

_“Oh, how did this get here?”_

_Children’s giggles could be heard echoed from the small and warm cabin in the heart of the strange maze of a forest._

I could feel my eyes water as the memories flooded my mind. Oh god. I missed you.

“Truffles!” I held her just as tightly as she did to me, as if saying ‘I won’t ever let go again’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	12. Sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“... Fifty.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“What?”_
> 
>  
> 
> _“It’s been fifty years since then.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, The winner of the poll has been revealed! it was honestly someone I did not expect, which is...... G! So, look forward to that. Not soon but it will come!
> 
> Btw, the flashback shown in this chapter is how they first met!
> 
> Here is my Undertale related tumblr:  
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

“Oh! Do you two already know each other?” We looked back at the confused group, arms still around one another. Truffles spoke first.

“Uhm, I actually used to live with Hy— I mean Alice, a long time ago,” She looked away nervously as we finally released each other. “Before I headed to the mountain,” The brunette then looked back at me remembering the others. “Hey, Hydra, you haven’t met the other humans, have you? Don’t worry, they are all pretty nice. Well, if you get past Frisk’s brattyness.”

“Hey! I take full offense to that!”

“Yeah, don’t care.” Chara held my hand as we got closer to the group of humans, I looked down hesitantly. The one called ‘Frisk’, who wore a blue and purple sweater, was the first to step up.

“Hey there beautiful, the name’s Frisk. By the way, are you a cat? Cause I think I’m **feline** a connection between us.” The young boy then gave me a cute little wink as I giggled at the pun while the skeletons just groaned. Hm. It’s not quite like how the skeletons do it. My heart seems to be quite normal unlike whenever G and Slim teases me. Then, the Chara look-a-like stepped up next, she gave the biggest and sweetest smile I had ever seen.

“Howdy! I’m Swappy, it’s really nice ta meet ‘cha!” She then started to pull on the boy next to her, who looks like a taller and grumpier Frisk with shorter hair.

“Come onnnn, you gotta say your name too!” She whispered to the boy who only groaned and rolled his eyes.

“I’m Sui. That good enough?” She gave him a wide smile and nod as she nuzzled his arm, he then looked away in embarrassment, red cheeks and all, and snatched his arm away from her. Another person in a red and black sweater stepped forward nervously, holding an equally nervous girl who stood behind him.

“I’m F-Fell, and this is Jigou. She’s mute, so I’m usually the one who translates.” A taller girl behind Fell and Jigou started to pet their heads like a loving mother. She also wore a red and black sweater and had a yellow flower pin in her hair.

“I’m Shita, these two are pretty shy, so they’ll warm up to you sooner or later. It’s finally your turn Ika.” The final person looked like they were just dozing off before Shita spoke up, the nodded before giving me quite the intense stare. It was… Kind of intimidating. I may have hid behind Chara a bit to get away from the intense stare.

“I’m… Ika. It’s nice… To meet you.” He had some pauses in between some of his words, as if it took him a bit to process everything. Now that I had a good look at him, he had some worn out looking bandaged around his neck, maybe he just has trouble speaking?

“I-it’s nice to meet you all, I-I’m Alice.” I said just before a harsh voice startled me.

“Are you all done? We are supposed to have a game night today. Although, I much would prefer giving the humans a proper torture class.” Black groaned as he tapped his foot impatiently. Almost everyone’s expression had converted to one of uncomfortability at Black’s prefered choice of entertainment. Chara spoke up before I could apologize.

“Actually, I’m going to skip game night, I wanna spend some time with, Alice.” Before anyone could answer, Chara had already dragged me upstairs.

“Which room’s yours?”

“Oh, uh, the attic.”

“Got it.”

* * *

Once we got in my room, Koko had been sitting patiently on top of the bed. Once he looked up at us, his eyes widened in shock just before almost tackling Chara down while giving her slobbering kisses all over her face.

“Woah! Kokonut, is that really you? Holy shit. You’re still really young too! How aren’t you just a bag of bones?”

“What do you mean?” Chara gives me a dumbfounded look, as if asking if I was serious.

“He’s a Fox, a wild one at that! An American Red Fox in the wild don’t even live past five years!” Wait what? Now that I think about it, how long has it been since…  

“How many years has it been since you… Left us?” Chara’s smile dropped as she looked away in guilt before letting out a soft murmur.

“... Fifty.”

“What?”

“It’s been fifty years since then.” Has… Has it really been that long? Then, wait, how is **Chara** so young looking? She’s all human, right?

“Then what about you?”

“What?”

“How have **you** barely aged in that time?” She gave a bitter smile at my question.

“I could ask you the same thing.” The room was only filled with an awkward silence after that, Koko looking at the two of us worriedly. Then, Chara let out a little giggle just before letting out a small laugh and for some reason, I joined alongside her.

“Man, look at the two of us. Two old ladies who haven’t seen each other in years acting like this,” It was a tiny bit funny. “I’m sure we both have been through somethings over the years that we… Probably should tell each other,” Chara’s expression had been enveloped in sadness as she said that. “I should go first, considering what I did to you all…”

* * *

  _Running as fast as their tiny legs could, the small child ran away from that terrible town. That town that treated them like they were worthless, like they were the stain of the Earth._

**_Like they were a horrid demon._ **

_The child had tripped, looking around to take in the surroundings they had arrived in. A vast, thick forest. The child was hardly paying attention to where they were going. As long as it was away. Away from that damn town. They stood up and slowly continued through the thick forest. Everything was looking the same, green vines, tall trees, puffy bushes. They couldn’t tell if they already passed through certain parts or if it was a new path at this point._

_They had been walking for hours at this point, they haven’t eaten since yesterday, if you could even call that food, and they were starting to get dizzy from fatigue. What was that figure? Something actually new? The child had hobbled faster just before tripping and letting out a soft ‘oomf’, getting the attention of the figure. It was a woman with long, wavy, black hair, she wore a baby blue dress with a white cardigan, and she had a basket in one arm. As she got closer, the child was able to see the woman’s face better. Her eyes were a bright emerald, her skin was as pale as the winter’s snow, and on her cheeks… Were scales. The scales were a dark green, contrasting from her light skin. The child heard of the many rumors their classmates told, of a strange pale woman with reptilian scales on her cheeks that could practically turn anyone to stone with just one glance. A real life Medusa. Right in front of them. Fear struck the child as they immediately tried to get up and run. But they were too weak. The Medusa finally spoke, her voice gentle and soft but filled with worry for the child in front of her._

_“Oh, my child, don’t worry. I will not harm you, you must be starving,” The woman then rummaged through her basket and brought out a small loaf and handed it to the child who only gave her a look of confusion in return. “Here, it’s for you.” What? She’s just going to give away her food just like that? To a stranger no less? The child never encountered kindness before. This whole situation was absolutely surreal to them, like they could wake up back in that damn household at any moment. Hesitantly, they accepted the loaf and took a small bite. It was still warm. Large tears flowed out of the child’s dark chocolate eyes as they ate the loaf given to them. The pale woman let out a giggle._

_“You must have been starving, huh?” The woman now sat in front of them but not too close as to make sure they weren’t uncomfortable. “What brings you to these neck of the woods, sweetie?” They shifted nervously, remembering why they ran like hell._

_“I… Family didn’t want me around anymore. Had no place to stay, so I ran here.” Well, that wasn’t far from the truth. The woman’s eyes then shifted to a concerned expression._

_“Oh, my! I’m so sorry, my dear. Hmm…  How would you like to stay with me and my daughter? It’s a bit small and not much, but, that’s what makes it warm and cozy!” The woman giggled. Why? Why is she being so nice to a stranger like this? If this really was a dream, then, the child wished that they won’t ever wake up. No one has ever made them feel this way, no one has ever been so concerned for their health, or even considered attempting to make them feel safe. But… This woman, a stranger, is showing them such sincere gestures, they just couldn’t hold it in anymore. The tears had started to fall out more and more. The woman reached out to rub the tiny child’s back and held them close to her._

_“It’s alright my child. Everything is going to be alright now. You’re safe now,” The gesture only made them cry harder. After what felt like forever, the brunette had finally calmed down, the woman continued to stroke their hair nonetheless. “Oh, I had almost forgotten, my name is Ioshii, what is yours, my dear?” The child rubbed the leftover tears from their eyes._

_“... ‘m Chara.” Ioshii gave a large smile before slowly standing up and gave them her hand. Hesitantly, Chara reached for her hand and stood up, still holding Ioshii’s warm hand._

_“My house is this way, I’m sure my daughter will be absolutely ecstatic when she sees you, she’s never met another person her age before. Actually, she’s never met another person before. She’s technically about your age.” Technically? What’s that supposed to mean?_

_The two had finally arrived to a small little cabin with vines and flowers growing all around, like they grew to make the place prettier. Chara’s classmates would always say how Medusa’s house was this decrepit shack where she’d lure children, Hansel and Gretel style, then feast on every part of her victims, bones and all._

_“Here it is, your new home from now on, Chara.” Suddenly, there was a little girl who opened the cabin’s door. The young girl had tan skin and long black hair, was wearing a lavender dress, and was holding onto a little, white fox cub in one arm. The small child appeared to be about Chara’s height as well._

_“Mama! Mama! You’re back!” The girl’s excitement was then cut short when she noticed the stranger holding her mother’s hand._

_“Alice, dear, this is Chara. They will be living with us from now on. Think of them like a younger sibling.” Ioshii explains. A few moments of only silence from the small girl, until she finally let out the biggest smile Chara had ever seen on a person and ran up to the two of them at top speed._

_“Hi! I’m Alice an’ this here’s Koko! He can have an attitude from time to time, but he’s just a big ol’ puffball!” Alice had offered her hand for a handshake, Chara nervously looked up at the woman who only gave the small child a reassuring smile. Hesitantly, Chara reached out to return the handshake. Oh, how warm. Suddenly, Chara was brought into a tight hug, with the fluffy fox getting a bit squished in between the two children and letting out a little whine. When was the last time Chara experienced a warm hug like this? Probably not since their Uncle’s car accident._

_“Oh no! Sorry about that Koko, I didn’t mean to smoosh you back there!” Alice then released the other child from the hug, much to Chara’s slight dismay._

_“Let’s go inside! I wanna show you all the books I show to Koko, plus mama makes the best chocolate truffles!” Did she say chocolate? Oh, when was the last time Chara that sweet delight? It had to be a few years by now. The ravenette girl then grabbed onto Chara’s arm and dashed right back into the house with her mother following the three with a giggle._

_Looking inside and taking in their surroundings, feeling the soft warmth of the house, and smelling a sweet aroma that drifted throughout the house. Chara had done something they had not done since their Uncle’s accident._

_Chara had smiled._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's how the humans look btw!:  
> 
> 
>  
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	13. A Basket of Troubled Fries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Did you ever feel a sorta spark whenever anyone touched ya?”_
> 
> _“No.” I lied through my teeth._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am. Pretty sick today and was not able to go to class today. So I decided to upload the next chapter since I am way ahead in this story anyway.
> 
> So here you go! And here's to hoping I feel better.
> 
>  
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

Truffles explained to me how she met Frisk and her new family and what the underground was like. It felt like she had left out many details of the story, but, it would be best not to bother her with that, she already looked quite sad recalling the story.

“And that’s how monsters came to the surface, it’s been a week since that happened actually.” Was that little earthquake I felt that time the monsters coming out of the mountain?

“So, what happened with you? Where… Where’s Mama Io?” I looked down in guilt, She looked at me with an alarmed expression.

“What happened to her, Alice?” My heart began to race at a rapid rate, I could feel every part of my body shake.

“She’s gone because of me. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have ever—”

“Woah, woah, slow down. Take a breath and slowly tell me what happened.” I felt her hands on my shoulders to snap me out of my panic. I took a deep breath before providing a clearer statement.

“She… Died. The men that were looking for Koko saw me alone then mom… She…” I could feel the hot tears roll down my face. Damn it… I could have saved her. Chara’s expression then shifted to one of understanding. Koko was no longer on the brunette’s lap, he had come up to me and tried to lick away the tears. Ha, Koko, that’s gross.

“You don’t have to say anymore. I get the idea,”  She then held me close. She was so warm. “Make sure to stay safe when you go outside, there are still some people who aren’t too fond of their new little neighbors to say the least.” I could practically hear the scowl in Chara’s voice. We had released from our embrace, Chara’s face had changed to a relieved smile.

“You know, I’m really happy to see you again. I was so sure you’d hate me if you saw me.”

“How could I ever hate you? You’re my little sister!” I gave her a pat on the head like I used to. We let out a little laugh before heading out, but then, Truffles stopped halfway out of the door.

“Hey, Hydra?”

“Yes, Truffles?” She then turned to me with a suspicious spark in her eyes.

“How **did** you meet the skeletons? Last I remember, the forest is like an absolute maze if you don’t pay too much attention.”

“Oh! Uhm, Sans, Red, and Stretch came knocking at my door saying they felt a monster’s soul at the house and apparently they needed grandfather’s journals to look for these missing people.” I remembered the promise I made to Slim, I didn’t say **who** the missing persons were, so I technically didn’t break it! … I think? Truffles then gave me a stupefied look, as if saying, ‘are you serious?’ She then let out the biggest sigh I had ever heard and mumble something about ‘dumb scientists’ and ‘nosy’.

“Head down before me, I need to have a talk with Sans about something. I’ll catch up with you soon, maybe you can get to know the others? I promise they don’t bite.” Truffles gave me a tired look when she mentioned Sans. Are they not on good terms? I nodded nervously and headed to the living room. Papyrus noticed me enter the room and let out an excited yell. I-I’m not that far.

“Oh! Ms. Alice! You arrived just in time, we were just about to play truth or dare with the humans!” I tilted my head in confusion.

“What’s truth or dare?” Everyone had either given me a look shock or insult. Did I say something wrong? Blueberry practically jumped out of his seat at my question.

“You’ve **never** heard of truth or dare?! It’s a game that is played at every kind of sleepover!”

“Uhm… I haven’t ever had a sleepover either.” Everyone somehow looks even more shocked than they already did. Blueberry had ran up to me and dragged me over to the table full of monsters and humans.

“Ms. Alice! You **must** play truth or dare with us! I assure you, this game is full of japes!” I was placed between Papyrus and Blueberry, with the humans just across from us. Did Frisk just wink at me?

“So, how do we play?”

“It is very simple! One person is chosen and given the choices of ‘truth or dare’. If they choose truth then they will have to answer a question with full honesty and if dare is chosen, they would have to obey a command given.” I nodded, the rules seem simple enough.

“Can we start this stupid game already?! The humans are going to die of old age at this rate!” Edge yelled loudly, causing me to scoot back a bit. His voice was so loud, I could practically hear my ears ringing. Gosh, I hope it doesn’t get too loud, I don’t do well with noisy areas.

“Oh, yes! Frisk, you can start, the game was your idea after all.” The boy let out a smirk, oh, that’s not a good sight.

“Hmm, Alice, truth or dare?”

“Uhm, uh. Truth.” Frisk’s smirk only widened more, it looked rather intimidating. I braced myself for whatever came next.

“What’s your relationship with Chara? You two seemed pretty chummy in each others’ arms back there. Not to mention little nicknames.” Oh. I was expecting something more hard hitting, that’s good.

“She’s my little sister, well, sorta. We’re not blood related.” Frisk’s expression then shifted to deep disappointment. Was that not the right answer? Some of the older looking humans looked at me with suspicion, but soon let it go. Ah, it’s the Chara look-a-like’s turn. Swappy was it?

“Heyyy! It’s my turn and you know what time it is!” Sui let out a groan at Swappy’s starry-eyed excitement.

“Sui! Truth or dare?”

“Ughh, truth.”

“Do you wuv me?” Swappy batted her eyelashes at the boy. Despite Sui’s disgusted expression, his face was bright red.

“No.”

“Wha- Lying’s a big no no!”

“ I’m not fuckin--”

“Language is a no no too!” I giggled at their little antics, they seem to be quite close. Swappy puffed up her cheeks at Sui’s answer, he only shrugged in return. Ah, it appears to be Fell’s turn.

“Uhm, Pa— I mean, Edge. Truth or dare?” Edge just scoffed at the question, like the very question was lower than him.

“I’m not a little babybones like these creampuffs,” He said, gesturing to Papyrus and Blue who both let out offended ‘Hey’s. “I’ll go dare.” Fell placed his finger on his chin, trying to think of something then finally getting an idea.

“Try describing the sky without using blue or white.” Edge rolled his eye lights at the question and opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. The tall skeleton started to look a bit sweaty as everyone let out a little giggle.

“Awe, **Razor** , I thought you said that you’re not a ‘little babybones’ but you can’t answer a simple question.” Black mocked as Edge started to turn red with anger, oh god I think he’s gonna scream. I closed my ears in preparation for the possible ear bleeding voice.

“I am **not** a little babybones nor is my name **Razor** ! I am just creating the best way to answer the question, unlike you, I actually **think** , you whining little whelp!” Black’s victorious smirk had quickly shifted to a deep frown, his face turning a dark, royal blue. Oh, this may turn into a yelling competition.

“How **dare** you?! I’m far more superior than you will ever be!”

“Hah! You couldn’t even capture a child back in the underground!”

“Nor did you!!”

“Well, at least **my** traps were more confusing and intricate!”

“At least **my** brother obeys my commands!” The two continued to bicker back and forth, every sentence becoming louder and louder. I don’t think my hands are going to help at this point, I look over to the children who are in a similar position, with Jigou almost on the verge of tears. Papyrus must have noticed how uncomfortable we were and tried to stop the fighting.

“Now, now, you two. Let’s continue the game, no need to fight. You both are kind of scaring the humans.” Papyrus gestures to the others, Edge and Black’s yelling had finally stopped and replaced with a tiny bit of guilt in their eyes despite their scowling.

“Fine, but if he continues to insult me, this game is done.”

“If you weren’t so dumb then maybe I wouldn’t have to do that.” Black muttered, making Edge give him a nasty stare and growl. Edge gave Fell a quick glance before begrudgingly continuing the game.

“The sky… is like an ocean. Both are the same colors, have a sort of flow, and meet at the horizon. Next person go already!” Some of them shrugged, a close enough answer I suppose. Oh, it looks like it’s Shita’s turn-- Oh, why is she smirking like that?

“Truth or dare,  Alice?”

“Uh… Truth?”

“Now,  Alice, I am quite curious. Do you have anyone in particular you have a crush on?”

“Crush?”

“Romantic feelings.” Shita said bluntly, my face had turned beet red, I-I never thought of any romance myself. I don’t think I quite know how they’re supposed to feel like.

“N-no! I just started staying here yesterday!” Shita’s smile had widened at my little outburst, oh dear, I said too much.

“I never said anything about the crush being a resident of this house.” My face started to heat up even more as the humans started to smile wickedly.

“O-oh…”

“Ms. Alice! You like someone?! In this house no less? How scandalous!” My face was burning even more when Papyrus looked at me with an orange blush. The other skeletons seem to have started to blush as well. My mind crossed to all the times I felt that strange spark, then, to those voices in my dream. I rapidly shook my head, oh god, this is so embarrassing!

“N-no! It’s not like that! I just…” I couldn’t think of anymore words to say and just hid my face with my hands. Oh god, why is this happening? Shita let out one last giggle.

“Alright, I think I embarrassed you quite enough. Blueberry, it’s your turn.” Blue had just snapped out of his little trance and directly looked at me with starry eyes.

“Ms. Alice truth or dare?” I am quite tired of the embarrassing questions already, plus, I don’t think Blue’s dares would be that bad. I hope.

“Uhnm, dare?” Blueberry’s smile had widened as he cleared his invisible throat.

“Ms. Alice, I dare you,” I held my breath for what felt like forever, did I underestimate what he can do? “To sit on my lap for the rest of the game!” Oh… Oh! My face became red once more as his turned a glowing cyan but he still had the face of determination. I could hear Edge and Black screeching in anger as Papyrus just looked plain shocked, to put it lightly. The older humans started to giggle while Fell and Jigou looked as embarrassed as I was.

“U-um… Alright.” How do I keep getting myself in these sorta messes with these young brothers? I stood up and took a seat on Blueberry’s lap, I think if the lights were off, me and Blueberry would be glowing. Him more than me. It feels strange to sit in someone’s lap again. This is not as boney as I thought it would be— NOT that I ever imagined this situation happening!

“Ah—I, uh, haha. T-the ma-magnificent Blueberry w-welcome you, m-m-ms. Alice wi-i-with open arms!” Blueberry was stuttering up a storm as his arms shakely wrapped around my waist. After a few moments of screeching silence, Black had abruptly stood up.

“This game is over now.”

“Wha— But, Black, the g-game only started—”

“It’s over now! It’s almost time for the humans to go home anyway!” I looked out the window, oh my! When did it get so dark? Blueberry had let go of me with that realization and I was able to return to a proper seat feeling oddly… Disappointed? The kids groaned in protest as they headed out the door, but not before Frisk blew one last kiss before leaving. They were still standing outside though, they were probably waiting for Truffles. Oh! Speak of the devil, Chara had just came downstairs with a more tired than usual Sans.

“Oh, is everyone outside already?” I nodded at her question. “Cool, was everyone nice to you?” I remembered the dare Blue had me do and the question Shita asked me, gosh, my face has gotten red so many times today! I let out a nervous laugh.

“Y-y-yes! They were incredibly sw-sweet!” Chara only looked at me in confusion and shrugged. She and I hugged one last time before she headed outside with the others and left. I let out the breath I didn’t know I held, oh, what a day.

“Um, Ms. Alice?” Oh, it’s Blueberry, he looks quite nervous.

“Y-yes?”

“Perhaps, we could… Go on a date? J-just the two of us!” The skeletons who were cleaning up looked at the two of us with an offended look, I think their jaws could drop at any moment.

“What’s a date?”

“Oh, it’s—” Edge had interrupted Blueberry before he could finish his answer.

“Nothing a puny human like you should be doing!”

“W-why? Are they bad?” Edge’s face started to look conflicted as his normally loud voice lowered.

“No… But! It’s not something you should do with this sad excuse of a monster!” The cyan skeleton’s mouth made an almost perfect ‘O’ as his ey— uh, bone brows furrowed. The two started to bicker quite loudly— Oh dear god! Sans suddenly appeared right next to me, that almost gave me a heart attack!

“They’re going to be at it for a while. Wanna go get some food? I know a place and a shortcut.” He gave me a playful wink… Somehow. I feel bad for just leaving those two, but, I’d rather not stay somewhere so loud. I gave Sans a nod.

“Cool. Close your eyes for a sec, alright?” I closed my eyes as he took my hand, we were going up the stairs and then, it was that dark feeling again. Like the dreams and that time with Stretch. His skeletal hand was strangely very warm in this strange, dark place. I could hear a door open then we stopped inside, the place was warm and there was a delicious aroma in the air along with smoked firewood.

“ ‘Kay, kiddo, we’re here. You can open your eyes now.” I open my eyes to reveal a place with many tables and different monsters sitting at each one. Their chatthering was halted once Sans and I arrived and all eyes are now on the two of us, I held the skeleton’s arm closer to me nervously. I could hear the monsters whispering amongst each other as their eyes followed our movements. Did his face turn a baby blue for a second?

“Hey, Grillbz, it’s been a while.”  Behind the bar full of various bottles, a man made of fire was cleaning a glass and despite not having eyes behind those rectangular glasses, the man was glaring at the skeleton. Sans and I took a seat at the bar in front of the burning man.

“Hey hey, don’t worry, I’ll pay my tab. Sooner or later…” The man just let out a defeated sigh and his attention was now directed onto me.

“Who’s your new friend Sans? Red is usually the one bringing in random women.”

“Yeah, I’m not like him. This here’s Alice, she’s rooming with us from now on.”

“I’m Grillby, my brothers and I own this bar. And, I am so sorry my dear,” The man then gave me a look of pity. Uhm, what is he sorry for? “He and his… Cousins, must be so troublesome. I wish for the best.” Oh! That’s what he meant.

“Hey, we’re not **that** bad, no need to tell her a **fibula**.”

“U-uhm, i-it’s alright. Sans’s family has been quite n-nice to me, and his b-brother is very sweet too!” Sans starts to sweat as he looks away guiltily. The man behind the bar stared right through me, as if judging me. Even though he doesn’t seem to have eyes, he is stare is burning through my very being (oh, I did a pun). The man finally turned back to the guilty looking skeleton.

“You and your family better take care of this girl.” The elemental said as he went back to cleaning the glass in his hands. Sans only started to sweat more before letting out a nervous, ‘y-yeah’.

“So, Grillbyz, I’ll take my usual and she’ll take the same thing.” Grillby nodded and walked through the door near the bar. There was only this long stretch of strange silence between the two of us before the blue skeleton let out a cough.

“So, uh, what do you… What do you like to do? Like, a hobby?” I blinked, trying to process his question after almost complete silence between the two of us.

“Um, I would paint or read when I lived at that house.” He looked away a bit frustrated, oh no, what did I say wrong?

“That’s pretty cool. What are the kinda books you got?”

“Little bit of everything, whenever mother went into town, even before I was born, she would get a couple of different books and it all started to pile up.” He nodded as I explained. He then let out a sigh.

“Okay, I’ve gotta stop beating around the bush. I was wondering how you know Chara,” I looked down uncomfortably as I shifted in my seat. “Sorry. Y-you don’t gotta answer if you don’t wanna I was just—”

“I-it’s alright,” I cut off the skeleton’s nervous rambling before telling him my short explanation. “She’s my little sister. Not by blood though, my mother found her lost in the woods near our house when she was very young. I didn’t know why she was alone in the woods, but I was happy to finally have another friend at the time. But, one day she… She just left. Gone. Mother had come back home that day and was crying. I… Must have did something to have Chara run away like that.”

“No,” I looked up at the skeleton with glassy eyes I didn’t know I had. “Quit blaming yourself over things that are outta your control.”

“But—”

“I don’t wanna hear any butts about it,” Grillby had then came back, food in both hands. They were in small baskets and were long sticks, they looked pretty steamy, must be fresh? “Now, eat your fries and we’re gonna not do any self blaming…” Sans’s tone changed once he said ‘self blame’ as if he knew exactly what it was like, looking at me with some sort of sympathy. I looked down at the food in front of me, I took one piece and slowly bit it. Oh my, it was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with a bit of salt. I must have let out a noise as I ate, Sans’s eye sockets seemed to be amused as he watched me.

“Pretty good, right? Grillby’s food is always great.” I may have nodded a bit to fast.

“It’s wonderful, thank you for the delicious food, Grillby!” The elemental chuckled as his cheeks turned a bit blue.

“It is no problem dear.” Grillby had left once again, attending the other patrons in this place.

“So, uh, kid. Have you ever heard of a ‘soulmate’?” I looked back up at him, food halfway in my mouth.

“The thing my grandfather and mother had?”

“Your mom had one too?” I nodded.

“Yeah, that’s how she met my father. I remember father said, ‘I felt the sparks fly the moment I bumped into your mother’. And grandfather wrote something similar, but he said that he could see a red string connecting him to grandmother,” I looked down at my right pinky, squinting. But, unfortunately, no line could be seen. Sans gave me a look of guilt that reminded me of Koko when ever he knew he did something wrong.

“Monsters are more in tune with their souls so that would explain why he could see it. Humans on the other hand can’t, they can only faintly feel it.” Wait, feel it? My head cut to all the times the skeletons and I made contact. I shook the thought out of my head, that can’t be right, I don’t have one. A person like me **can’t** have one.

“Did you ever feel a sorta spark whenever anyone touched ya?”

“No.” I lied through my teeth. There is no way they would ever want me as their soulmate anyway. Sans stared at me with no emotion before sighing.

“Alright. So, uh, hey kid. If anything bad happens to ya, just give me a call,” He handed me a weird device with a screen, he looks at me expectantly as if I knew what to do and chuckled realizing his mistake. “Oh, right, a shut in, in the woods. Uh, that’s called a cell phone, you can call a person even if you’re far away. Like this,” He takes out his own phone and presses something and the one in my hand starts to make noises. “Then you just press that button there and you’ll be able to talk. I already put everyone’s number in the phone, more convenient,” He shrugs as he puts his phone back into his pocket.

“Hey, Sans?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“... No problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	14. Chocolate Bones (Chapter 13.5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Knock, knock, Sans.”_
> 
> _“Who’s there?”_
> 
> _“Who.”_
> 
> _“Who who?”_
> 
> _“Who the hell do you think you are you fucking owl?!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm still pretty sick and i was gonna upload this chapter anyway so yeah
> 
> This chapter is just a cut back to Sans and chara's little talk. I like to think they would actually get along quite nicely
> 
> Also! I forgot to post the mother's design, so here it is:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

“Ugh, what the hell were those skeletons thinking, taking someone from their old environment like that.” Chara angrily mumbled to herself as she looked for a certain blue, pun throwing skeleton’s room. Once locating it, she gave the door a harsh knock.

“Knock, knock, Sans.”

“Who’s there?”

“Who.”

“Who who?” The moment Sans answered, Chara kicked down the door to the comedian’s room.

“Who the hell do you think you are you fucking owl?!” Was the door kick unnecessary? Maybe. But was kicking the door down satisfying? Absolutely.

“Woah! Chara, holy fucking shit, what the fuck, kid?!” Sans was, understandably, shocked at the brunette’s action. Chara looked at the now hanging door and attempted to place it back on the broken hinges and closed the door for some privacy.

“Well, I met this new roommate of yours.”

“Yeah?”

“She’s sweet, real sweet. In fact, she reminds me of my sister who I lived with before I fell,” Sans had paused, realizing what was happening. “Actually, she even looks like her too. You get what I’m trying to say here?” Sans nodded, not looking at the human’s annoyed expression. “Why, Sans?” The skeleton sighed.

“We originally weren’t there for her journals, we saw our strings when we first got out of Ebbot and felt our soulmate’s pulse,” The brunette’s eyes widened, soulmate? How the fuck—With the whole skeleton family? “We thought it was strange our soulmate had the resonance of a monster, so, Stretch, Red, and I went to look for them, we followed the pulse and came across _her_ place. Once we got closer, we could hear the soul more clearly, it was calling for help. When we knocked on her door a few times, we heard her fall so we got worried and came in,” Chara audiby facepalmed at their choice of action, she knew they can be nosy but still. Sans looks at her worriedly, but she only gestures him to continue. “Uh, she was hiding her face when we came in and when we managed to calm her down, she fainted. Then when she woke up, Stretch snooped around a bit and found her old man’s journals. I just thought the best action was to have her live with us, the pulse we felt really was coming from her so, we didn’t want her to live there alone any more than she already had.” Chara nodded.

“But still, knowing you all, you were still suspicious of her. Weren’t you?” Sans looked down in guilt. Frisk really had a hell of a time back in the underground. Sans still couldn’t believe how he and the others reacted to their soulmate’s anxiety attack. He felt like fucking shit almost attacking her because… Those eyes. Those red fucking eyes that stared back at him in that damn hallway. Dust staining Frisk’s clothes and hands, that smile that stretched from ear to ear. Every kill, even just one, morphing the human duo’s mind and forcing them to become that murderous machine. Resetting after every loss. Killing him over and over and over and over and _over and  o v e r a n d_ —

“ _Sans!_ ” The skeleton’s head shot up from his thoughts to the girl’s worried face. “You were doing it again,” Sans only looked away. Even a week after coming out of Mt. Ebott. Those eyes haunt his every move. “I know what Frisk did was unforgivable, I was there to finally stop him and teach him a lesson. But please, Hy-- Alice’s far from a killer. You’re finally free,” Chara had sat next to Sans on his bed, patting his back for comfort. “If he ever does it again, I’ll always be the one to stop him.”

“I know,” The uncomfortable silence surrounded the two before Sans asked a question that’s been on his mind.

“Hey, Chara?”

“Yeah, comedian?”

“Why did you leave that kid and her mom, she would have been happier with you around.” Chara looked down, guilt in her chocolate brown eyes.

“I hurt her. I hurt her like I did everything else I do. I was being the demon my family always called me.”

“Kid, we’ve talked about this. You’re not any sorta demon, you’re just… A kid. You were a kid, I mean,” The brunette only nodded. “What really happened before you fell, Chara?” She let out a deep sigh before relenting.

* * *

_“Hydra! Hydra! Over here! There’s a whole bunch of flowers in this area, they’re buttercups too!” Two children were running from the nearby forest into the field of golden flowers._

_“W—wait, Truffles, this is near the town, momma said we can’t come here!” A small girl with black hair was following the brunette into the buttercup field._

_“It’s fine, no one really comes here anyway!” The small girl started to pick the golden flowers, twisting them together, making them into a crown. “There’s so many buttercups here!” The darker haired girl shifted a bit before sitting next to their now sister and joining in the crown making. “Mama Io is gonna love these!” The two laughed together as the continued their flower picking, unaware of the three children coming up to them._

_“Hey look, it’s the monster. Chara finally found someone to be a boring mess with,” The other two children snickered at their leader’s comment. Gaining Chara and the other girl’s attention. “I never seen that girl before—Oh wait, don’t tell me! You actually made friends with Medusa's kid!” The dark haired girl hid behind Chara, scared of the new children who came up to the two._

_“So what? Just leave us alone!”_

_“Dad says things like you two are cursed, that you shouldn’t even exist,” The three continued to laugh as Chara was starting to become angrier and angrier. “Your whole family is just some weird cult, they don’t even care you’re gone.” At this point Chara had stood up, tired of the insults._

_“At least I don’t have a dad that goes around kissing other girls!” The kids faces had changed from amusement to anger._

_“You take that back!”_

_“Not until you leave us alone!” One of the children had picked up a rock and threw it at the two girls, the other children followed, continuously throwing rocks until—_

_“Ah!”_

_“Alice!” One of the rocks had made contact with the other girl’s head. Chara bent down to check at Alice’s wound. A thin, red line trickled down from the wound and down the tan girl’s face. Blood. As Alice looked up from her position, there was something… Off. Her once bright violet eyes were now a crimson red. Widened and staring, hyper fixated on something. Chara followed her sister’s line of vision which were aimed at the three children. They were absolutely frozen. One was in mid-laugh, another mid-throw, and the last one just stares back with widened eyes._

_“W-what in the—” Chara and her sister were then dragged back into the forest by something or someone. Once the two were in the heart of the forest’s maze, the person who had taken the two away was Mama Io. Alice had long since passed out from the adrenaline of the situation._

_“Chara, what have I told you about going near the town?”_

_“I… I…” The girl felt guilt all throughout her mind, she suddenly started to laugh. She laughed and laughed until tears started to flow out of her dark brown eyes._

_But it wasn’t funny._

_The woman looked at the child in worry, noticing the golden flowers in the child’s trembling hands. “Oh Chara. Let’s just head home. You two must be tired.” Mama Io carried the unconscious child while she held the other crying child’s hand as they head back home._

* * *

_It was early morning, the sun wasn’t even up yet. Chara was wide awake as they laid next to Alice. The guilt ridden child looked at their sibling in shame. There was a sudden noise from the open window, when Chara turned to face the noise, she was met with a strange looking jet black snake with glowing black eyes. Usually Chara wasn’t scared of the serpents, however, this certain one… Rubbed her the wrong way. Its eyes looked as if it was judging her very soul yet it never moved. Only stared. She then heard the voices rush her mind_

**_You always do this._ **

**_You hurt everyone you meet._ **

**_This is why your old family hated you._ **

_Chara sat up, hands on her head as the voices plagued her mind._

_No._

_Nononononononononono._

_Leave me alone!_

**_You’re a demon._ **

**_You always will be._ **

_Chara quickly got out of bed and ran out of the cabin. She kept on running without looking back, not noticing the shadow that followed her. Suddenly, the child tripped, hitting hard stone. She looked around, taking her surroundings. It’s a cavern. It’s the place she wanted to go to. The top of Mount Ebbot. It’s the place she wanted to disappear to. Chara looked down at the large hole in front of her. Just one more step and she--_

_“Chara!” The child quickly turned her head to the new voice only to see Mama Io, breathless as she stood a feet away from the child. Chara stood up from her position, not stepping away from the large hole._

_“Chara, please. Please don’t do this. We love you too much to see you gone from our lives.” The woman pleaded with the child who looked at her in guilt. Chara could hear the voices enter her mind again._

**_Do it._ **

**_You’re nothing but a burden._ **

**_You’ll only hurt them if you stayed any longer._ **

**_Just like your uncle’s little car “accident”._ **

**_A demon will never be able to change._ **

_Chara placed her hands on her head in pain as the voices took over her mind, recoiling, getting much closer to the hole._

_“Chara!” Before the woman could run over to the child, Chara took the final step back, giving the other woman a tear filled smile before uttering a final goodbye._

_The mother wept on the ground as she watched her daughter fall into the darkness of the sinkhole._

* * *

Sans looked at the brunette who was only looking down at her fiddling hands. That explains why she was always so protective of Asriel when they were growing up. He let out a sigh as he rubbed circles on her back.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to protect her,” He looked down, feeling like he’ll regret his next words. “I promise. I’ll keep her safe.” Chara looked up at him with wide eyes. He… He’s really serious about this. The brunette wiped any tears that stained her rosy cheeks with her sleeve and quickly stood up, giving the skeleton a large smile.

“You better keep that promise comedian cause if you break it, I’ll make sure to rattle your bones,” They both let out a chuckle. Chara stopped, remembering another question she had.

“Hey Sans?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“What would happen to normal animals if they were to, say, live around magic all their life?” The skeleton placed an index and thumb near is chin, thinking, then shrugged.

“From what I remember with Gaster, he told me that if an _animal_ was healed by green magic _and_ eating magic based or infused foods, that would make it live longer and even keep ‘em young. The same could be said for a human actually. With the determination to live and enough additional magic, a human could even bring back the dead,” Sans turned to give Chara a knowing wink. “But, you already knew that part first hand. Don’t ya, kid?” The girl looked away and awkwardly scratched her head, letting out a low ‘Yeah.’ Sans looked at the human with suspicious eye sockets. “What’s up with the sudden interest in magic? Thought you hated that stuff, you don’t even like to reset.” Chara just shook her head.

“It’s just. The fox that follows Hyd-- I mean, Alice around, Koko, is as old as me now. Foxes, especially the breed that he is, don’t live long at all. In the wild especially. Was wondering how magic worked with animals.” The skeleton just nods as they both headed out of the room, the door’s hinges still broken.

“You know you’ll have to fix that right?”

“Put it on my tab.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)
> 
> EDIT:Oh god, i completely forgot that I got fanart! the piece is from [acousticpen](https://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com/post/182746660437/i-drew-the-reader-as-best-as-i-could-from-the) on tumblr and of MC! If y'all wanna do fanart for my fics, I'd be super happy to see 'em! And I'll make sure not to be so forgetful next time, Sorry for taking so long acousticpen ;w;


	15. Meat Eater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Uh, why’re ya lookin’ at the meat like that? It ain’t got anything other than that pill powder.”_
> 
> _“That’s what I’m looking out for.”_
> 
> _“Wha-“_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: raw meat eating in this chapter and a panic attack
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

Sans and I arrived home last night and headed to our respective rooms to sleep for the night. He looked a bit frustrated when he headed to his room, but, I’d rather not bother him anymore than I already did. I started wondering if that dreamscape was going to come again that night, but, it hadn’t. I only heard the voice from when Sans and the others first came to my house.

_“That’s a good start my dear. But, you should have a bit more confidence. We know you can heal our brothers’ souls, we wish you the best, Alice.”_

My eyes shot open to the ceiling window. Huh, that was much stranger than usual. I look over at Koko beside me, wide awake with large eyes looking through me. I shriek in surprise and practically fell off the bed. Is this going to be a routine? I heard a worried knock at the door.

“Ms. Alice! Are you alright?!” Oh no, I worried Blueberry.

“I-I’m fine! I just fell!”

“Oh no! Are you hurt?! I’ll go get you some ice!” Before I could protest, I could already hear the stomping away from my door. I let out a sigh as I looked back at Koko from the ground.

“Koko! What in the world was that for?” Once I had a good look, Koko’s expression was absolute terror. “Koko? What… What’s wrong? Are you alright?” I stood up to give the terrified vulpine a reassuring hug, he placed his paws on my shoulders, mimicking a baby’s hold. Koko only let out a whine in response, oh dear, he must have had a nightmare. I picked him up and held him like a crying toddler, he placed his head on my shoulder as he continued to whimper.

“It’s okay. It’s alright. We’re going to be going downstairs okay? Everything is going to be okay.” I headed out to the living room with a crying Koko in my arms. Everyone but Edge and G (thank goodness) were already in the room.

“Ms. Alice! I have some ice!”

“Oh, thank you Blueberry, but I really don’t need it.” Once everyone had their attention on me, they noticed what was definitely wrong.

“Oh no, Ms. Alice, what’s wrong with your little furry friend?” Papyrus asked as he was fixing up the couches. I continued to gently rock Koko like an infant while rubbing his back.

“I-I don’t know! He was already absolutely terrified when I woke up, I think he had a really bad nightmare.” Aster came up to me with a worried expression.

“Oh dear. Perhaps he’s just hungry? Blueberry, could you get a bowl of raw meat?” The short skeleton bolted into the kitchen and just as immediately came back, bowl in hand. I sat on my knees as Blueberry placed the bowl in front of me. When I attempted to place Koko on the ground, he let out a blood curdling screech that could probably be heard throughout the whole house and successfully scaring everyone in the room.

“Ok, ok, ok, ok, I won’t let you go, just. Just let me flip you over,” Koko’s wailing continued as I shifted him over so he was facing up and on my lap.

“Wench! Shut that damn animal already!” Black had yelled as he covered the parts of his skull where his ears would be.

“What do you think she’s trying to do, Black?!”

“No one asked you, powderpuff!” Blueberry and Black started to bicker loudly with each other.

“Uh, bro, I don’t think fighting is a good--” Slim elbowed Stretch into shutting up, the darker skeleton smirking darkly at the sight in front of him. Koko started to shuffle, uncomfortably at the yelling. Aster looked as if he was going interrupt the two but I was getting fed up with the arguments, without thinking I scolded the two of them before Aster could.

“Both of you be quiet! Your loud voices are just hurting him more!” The both of them both shut their mouths in favor of looking at me in surprise along with everyone else. But at this point, I didn’t care, I was more focused on helping Koko.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m not putting you down, I need to feed you somehow.” The fox started calm down as he realized what I was doing. There was then loud stomping from the stairs then Edge’s boisterous voice bouncing off the living room walls.

“What the ever living **FUCK** is goin’ on in this **FUCKING** room?!” I had already blocked Koko’s ears from the assault, in turn, my ears started to ring from the loud voice.

“Uh, boss. Sorry, but, now ain’t the best time to start yelling.”

“And why, pray tell, is that?!”

“E-Edge, please. Could you speak more quietly? Koko isn’t feeling well…” Once Edge’s eyes landed on my form, his harsh glare had softened significantly, seeing how much pain Koko was in. The tall skeleton walked over to me, his heels no longer making too loud a noise, and took a knee beside me.

“What seems to be wrong with the furry creature?” Edge whispered to me with a soft tone, surprising me a bit. His voice sounds kind of like Slim’s like this.

“Uhm, I think he had a nightmare. When I woke up, he was looming over me with wide eyes.” Edge observed the small fox with stern eyes before turning his head to Red.

“Red, get the Melatonin!”

“K-kay, boss!” Red immediately teleported off. Blue, Papyrus, and Aster had came up but not too close so the crowd of people doesn’t scare Koko.

“When Red gets the drug, we are going to put it in the fox’s food. Then, you will put him back to bed. Asgore knows how long he’s been awake.”  I nodded as Koko continued to whimper, I felt a skeletal hand on my face, wiping away a tear I didn’t know had fallen.

“No need to cry. The creature is going to be just fine. Humans are always so sensitive, it’s pathetic.” Edge grumbled out, despite his harsh words, I could hear the concern in his voice.

“Thank you, Edge. You’re the best.” The tall skeleton’s eyes widened in surprise before his mouth curled up in amusement.

“Why of course! I **am** the Mighty and Terrible Edge! No issue is too difficult for someone like me!” I let out a soft smile, but, I could not help but notice the slight hesitation in his voice as he said that. I heard a chuckle from Slim on the couch, just laying around, unfazed at the situation at hand.

“Man, you really are a nice guy Edge, you getting all soft cause of the human?” Before Edge could start yelling at the lazy skeleton, Red finally teleported back, breathing quite heavily.

“Took you long enough!” The tall skeleton scolded his brother, quickly snatching the bottle from the shorter monster.

“S-sorry, boss. It was jus’ really, really hard to find.” Edge had finally opened the bottle and crushed up one of the pills into powder and sprinkled it over the meat.

“Hey, Koko, it’s breakfast time,” I took one of the smaller meat pieces and brought it near Koko’s maw. He only shook his head as he looked at the meat with suspicious eyes. “You don’t trust it?” He nodded slowly, I let out a sigh and took out one of the meat pieces that wasn’t sprinkled but inspected it just in case.

“Uh, why’re ya lookin’ at the meat like that? It ain’t got anything other than that pill powder.”

“That’s what I’m looking out for.”

“Wha-“ Before Red could question me further, I already put the meat in my mouth and chewed it. The whole room erupted.

“Ms. Alice no! Humans can’t eat that raw meat like monsters could!” Blueberry was jumping up and down with worry and terror while Black and Aster just stared, flabbergasted.

“Ms. Alice, if you wanted to eat something, you could have asked for spaghetti!” Papyrus yelled out.

“Kid, what the fu--” I could hear Slim cackling in the back and Stretch looked a bit disgusted.

“HUMAN, WHAT THE **FUCK’RE** YOU **FUCKING** DOING?!”  Before Edge could grab me, I had already swallowed the meat.

“ See? There’s nothing wrong with the meat.” Koko looks at me with tear filled eyes, I go in to grab a piece of meat and moved it close to his maw once more. He sniffed the meat a bit but ultimately eats it. Wonderful! I continued to feed Koko the rest of the meat in the bowl. As Koko started to nod off, I rocked him gently until I knew he was fully asleep. I felt Edge’s hand on my shoulder.

“Human, you did not need to eat that in order to feed it to your creature.”

“But, the piece I ate didn’t have any of that drug on it.”

“That’s not the fucking point, you ate raw fucking meat, you are going to get sick, human.”

“But, I ate stuff like that before and I never got sick.” Some of them, the younger brothers in particular, looked at me with shock. Was it something I said? I remember the times when I was too impatient for my mother to cook the meat that I just ate it as is.

“My dear, I think right now it’s best for you to put your friend to bed. And brush your teeth.” Oh, right. I gave Aster a nod before heading back upstairs.

“What the fuck jus’ happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	16. Boutiques and Cakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sans was sweating a storm at this point as Aster giggles at the skeleton’s misery._
> 
> _“This is your punishment, Sans.”_
> 
> _“I know…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya guys, just letting y'all know that I may take a week hiatus since I've been really stressed as of late
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)

As I walked through the long hallway, G seems to be up ahead, I can already feel my face heating up as I remember the almost kiss.

“Hey, princess, what happen--” I ran to my room before I could feel anymore embarrassment. After I tucked Koko to bed and cleaned myself up, I headed back downstairs to see Aster, Edge, Sans, and Stretch waiting for me with G (oh no) laying around on the couch.

“Took you long enough, human. I, the Mighty and Terrible Edge, have decided to accompany you on your clothing search. I have the most impeccable taste in this whole household after all.”

“Oh, I see. Uhm, Stretch, are you coming along with us too?” The skeleton just shrugged.

“Bro said he wants me to get out of the house more. Since you all are stopping by Widow’s store, I’m gonna stop by Muffet’s Tuffet.” Muffet? Tuffet? Like the nursery rhyme? Just as we were stepping out, I suddenly heard G’s voice stop us.

“Hey, princess, before you go—” No. Nope. Nope. No. I only started walking faster and right out the door before he could finish. Oh, my. It’s so bright out. Now that I think about it, this is technically my first time going out of the house. At least, that’s not the backyard like— actually, I’m not going to revisit that memory. The gentle breeze and warm sun feel so nice on my skin.

“Hey, kid. You look like you’re enjoying the outside already,” I heard Sans’s voice from behind me. I nodded excitedly to which he and the others chuckled. “By the way, did you and G get into some kinda fight? You were pretty eager to get outta there.”

“Oh, no no, we didn’t get into any fight, we just— …” The voice I had immediately shut off, remembering that position G and I were in. I could feel the heat just creeping up on my face.

“ You two were just, _what_ , human?” I rapidly shook my head and turned my attention to Aster, hoping to change the subject.

“A-Aster! Where exactly is this store?”

“Hm. Widow’s boutique should just be about fifteen or so minutes away from here, so the walk shouldn’t be too bad.” Right when Aster mentioned walking, Sans and Stretch’s faces started to pale more than they already were.

“Oh, man, that sounds—”

“We are going to walk you useless bags of bones!” Stretch made a clicking noise in dissapoint— Wait. How??? He has no tongue.  At least, I don’t think so. This one is confusing me the most.

We started walking much to the sweater wearing skeletons’ dismay. It was strange to see so many other people around, well, this whole experience was strange so seeing a person just felt weird enough. Without realizing, I started to cling onto Stretch’s arm as we walked. I could feel everyone’s stare on us, the tension was suffocating. When we arrived to the store, I noticed a group of glaring men on the other side of the street, I quickly looked away, releasing Stretch’s arm from my grasp. When I let go, the tall skeleton let out a sigh. Was he disappointed?

“Welp, when you guys’re done, just head over next door. Just gonna wait there.” Stretch quickly headed the next door as we entered the boutique. The interior was gorgeous, but, in contrast, there were spiders dancing all throughout the store and some even was sewing the clothes.

“Ahuhuhu~ if it isn’t the spooky scary skeletons. It certainly is rare to see you all in my store, what brings you all in?”  A purple woman with six arms and eight eyes came out from behind curtains. She had short black bob cut and a mischievous smile.

“Widow, enough of the chit chat, we need clothes for this human. She is our new roommate.” Edge had pushed me forward to give the arachnid like woman a better view.

“Oh? Now this is certainly a special...” Her voice trailed as she gave us a strange look, but quickly shook her head. “Hello my dearie, I am Widow. I do hope these boys are treating you well, they can be quite the **numbskulls** ,” Widow gave me a handshake, I could hear Edge sputtering out curses and Sans just chuckling. “Now, come with me dearie, I need to take your measurements.” I followed her to the back room, it was a small little area with three mirrors in front of me. She brought out a tape measure and started to measure me out with one pair of hands as another pair recorded the numbers in a notepad.

“So, how did you meet the boney family? Last I checked, Sans doesn’t really care for new humans, Aster is quite shy, and Edge is… Edge.”

“Oh, Sans was a bit lost in the woods, he met me and asked for directions. I moved in to, uh, help him out with a project.” I mean, it’s technically the truth.

“Hmm,” She gave me a skeptical look in the mirror. “I see, never knew Sans would even walk in the woods. I was shocked to see that he even walked here.” She and I let out a giggle, once we she had finished taking my measurements, we met back up with the skeletons who were sitting in the waiting area.

“Since you’re here Edge, I know you love to give orders, what is the type of clothing would you choose for this young miss? Well, If it is fine with you sweetie.”

“Of course, I don’t think Edge could choose something bad.” Well, other than his cooking but that’s a work in progress. Edge stood up with a smug smile and looked at the selection of premade clothing designs. There were many different styles, from soft dresses to outfits with little to no fabric (I hope Edge choose anything but those). Sans was starting to sweat as he watched the tall monster, the hand in his pocket fidgeting a bit.

“I believe these sort of clothes would be ideal for the human.” Edge points at a few of the choices, well, more than a few. Mostly pastel sweaters, some pants and shorts, and a… A leather outfit that matched his. It looks a bit uncomfortable. Sans was sweating a storm at this point as Aster giggles at the skeleton’s misery.

“This **is** your punishment, Sans.”

“I know…”

“Ahuhuhu~, come over to the counter to pay. It should be finished within a couple of hours or so.” Sans slowly approached the counter to pay and paling when seeing the price, but reluctantly pays with a card. As we left, I heard Widow let out an amused giggle.

“Thank you, dearies, come again~, oh and boys? Take good care of that little keeper, ahuhuhu~” The three skeletons’ faces were glowing as we got out the door, Edge was a crimson red, Sans was a baby blue, and Aster was tinted a lime green.

“What did she mean by that?”

“Nothing, human!”

“Don’t, uh, don’t worry about it kiddo. She’s just sayin’ a **fibula** , heh heh.” Edge let out an annoyed screech from the pun while Sans continued to chuckle.

“A-anywho, Stretch is waiting for us in the café, we can probably kill some time waiting for the clothes.” Aster suggested. Just as we were about to head to the building, I felt a large fleshy hand grab my arm, pulling me away from the others. My heart started to beat out of my chest. I looked up at the person, he was one of the men from that group.

No.

Don’t touch me.

Let me go.  

“Don’t worry yer sweet little head, doll. I’m savin’ ya from those… things.” As the man spoke, I could smell the strong scent of alcohol from his breath. I shivered in fear. The man was tall and had a messy stubble, he reminded me of those men that took mama away.

“Now, who said you could grab our friend like that?” Sans was looking back at the man with those empty sockets from when we first met.

“I’m takin’ her away from you lot! You all ain’t nothin’ but a buncha freaks!” The man started to grip my arm harder, I winced from the pain. Edge had noticed my wincing and his scowl started to deepen.

Let go.

Stop it.

“ I would not recommend doing that, **scum**.” I attempted to struggle out of the drunk man’s grasp.

“S-Sans! Edge! A-Aster! H-help me!” Without realizing, I called out to the others but the man growled, realizing I was not ‘grateful’ for his aid.

“Damn monster whore! I’m trying to fucking save you!” The man had started to twist my arm harshly, as if punishing me, I let out a scream of pain.

“That’s **fucking** it—” Just as Edge was about to summon his magic, Aster grabs his arm.

“Edge, no! We can’t harm any humans otherwise the agreement will be terminated!”

“What the **fuck** are we going to do then?! You **cannot** be suggesting that we just watch her get hurt by this less than dirt excuse of a human, do you?!”

“I am not, I am suggesting a way to not possibly killing him while saving her.” The man started to cackle, figuring out the advantage he has. All the passersby started to either gather to just watch in fear or quietly walking away, not looking at the scene. Why are they just ignoring this?

“Well, would ya lookit that sweetie,” I could feel the man roughly grab my face, turning my head to face his. “Guess we’re gonna have some fun little monster fucker.”

**_F̴u͏҉҉n̷?̷͢͞_ **

I could feel my heart stop and my blood run cold as I faced the man, whose face started to contort into shock. The man’s eyes were now red and wide, I felt his hand on my arm loosen. I rip myself out of the man’s grip, once Sans knew I was out of the man’s grasp, he lifted his hand and the man was pushed back.

“Alice!” Before the man could regain himself, I had ran and hid behind Edge, holding onto his arm tightly.

“ **Now** can I destroy that noise?”

“No, Edge, you may not.” Aster’s hand had covered up my eyes, wha- oh. I used my powers didn’t I? The man seemed to have recovered from his ordeal and started to yell obscenities at the four of us.

“I shoulda fuckin’ known that cunt was one of you damn freaks! Hiding her ugly fuckin’ disgusting scales!” The man had turned around and stomped away from us mumbling, ‘all the good ones are monsters’ and ‘fuckin’ medusea’. Aster’s hand had stopped blocking my vision, wait, did he say ‘scales’? The dress and cardigan I wore hid my shoulders so he wouldn’t have been able to see them, unless…

“Hey, kid, looks like you got something on your face there.” Sans pointed at his jaw, I felt my jaw with my fingertips, confirming my suspicions. My scales were finally growing out.

“Ugh, that disgusting vermin must have done that when he had his dirty paws on you.” Edge attempted to scratch away the scales on the right of my jaw, causing me to yelp out from the sharp pain which startled the tall skeleton as well.

“Wha- they, they’re actual scales?! D-did that hurt you?” Edge had said in an uncharacteristically worried tone.

“It’s alright, I’m fine.”

“My dear, could you face me for a second?” I turned to Aster, who then gently cupped my cheeks to have a better inspection of my face. Are all skeletons so touchy feely? I can already feel my face heat up.

“Hm, there does not appear to be any bruises or wounds. Alice, dear, how are you feeling right now?”

“I’m a bit tired.” Aster’s eye sockets widened a bit, as if he remembered something.

“Ah, then we should head inside the cafe, some food will certainly bring back your energy. I’ll pay this time.” I could hear Sans let out a relieved sigh. As we entered, the establishment was quite similar to Grillby’s restaurant, they even had a bar! The only differences was that the walls were painted lavender and there was a sweet scent of baked goods in the air rather than burning firewood. Oh and the ones taking the orders were little spiders instead of little fire creatures. At the bar area, I could see a hunched orange sweater wearing skeleton speaking to an arachnid woman who wore similar attire to Grillby, I finally released Edge’s hand in favor of getting close to Stretch.

“Hm? Oh, hey hun--” Before he could finish greeting me, I had placed my face in his chest and wrapped my arms around where his waist would be. “Uh, it wasn’t that long ago since you saw me.”

“Ahuhu, Slim’s habits are starting to rub off on you I see. I’m surprised you’re able to attract someone, let alone a girl like this. She reminds me of a doll, are those your type Stretch? Little daddy’s girls?”

“ _God_ , Tuffet, shut _up_.”

“Not until you pay your tab, lazybones.”

“That’s fair. But no, Slim’s not rubbin’ off on me, this girl’s our new roommate. She’s just… Uh, what exactly happened over there?”

“Well, you see--” Edge had cut off Sans.

“A damn drunkard went and snatched her away from us, claiming he was ‘saving her’. When he made eye contact with the human, he seemed to freeze up and started to yell at us more before running off.” I held Stretch tighter, remembering that incident.

“Hm, issat so?” I felt Stretch’s hand move to stroke my head. Was he trying to comfort me? His hand felt… So warm.

“You sure she isn’t that close with you all in that way? All of your souls seem to be too closely in sync with hers to be ‘just a roommate’, ahuhu.” Our souls are in synch? What does that mean? My mind was reminded of Sans’s question from last night. No, no. I don’t have one. I would… Be the worst choice ever. Nothing but a useless child.

“I-It is none of your business you insufferable spider!” I only heard the woman shrug at Edge’s screaming. I looked up from Stretch’s soft hoodie to get a better look at her. She had six arms and eight eyes like Widow, but, this spider wore her short hair in a ponytail and had some hair pins for her bangs, she also wore square rimmed glasses, much like the ones Grillby wore.

“Why hello there dearie, I’m Tuffet. My sister and I own this cafe, what’s your name?”

“A-Alice…” I answered, most of my face still hidden within Stretch’s sweater.

“Tuffet, may we get a slice of chocolate truffle layer cake for Alice and I will have a slice of the matcha castella cake. Edge, Sans, did you want anything?” The others sat at the bar with Stretch, Edge had grabbed me and placed me on the stool between him and Stretch.

“Meh, most of the stuff here’s way too sweet for my **tooth** , so I’ll have ta pass.” Edge let out a groan.

“Well it is certainly better than any sort of greasy food you and my brother are so fond of. I will have the raspberry champagne cheesecake.” Tuffet nodded as she took the orders.

“Okay, got it. I’ll be back soon with your orders.”

“Oh, Tuffy, can I get another slice of the honey pie?” Tuffet only flipped Stretch off with one of her many hands before leaving through the nearby door, causing Sans to chuckle.

“So, uh, hun. What’s with those things on yer face? Did Widow put em on ya when you weren’t paying attention?” Stretch points to his jaw, oh, right. The scales.

“Apparently, they are real. They appeared after her encounter with that damn dirt of a human. They appear to be sensitive as well.”

“Issat so? Hmm.” Stretch gave me a strange look just before reaching out and stroking my jaw gently. O-o-oh dear, the feeling is so, so nice! S-so good. As I let out a shameful whimper, Stretch’s hand bolted back from the noise I let out. His face turning a bright clementine. The others looked at me in surprise as well, reds, blues, and greens dusting their cheekbones.

“Woah! Uh, s-sorry about that hun. Just wanted to see what they felt.”

“Stretch. You are going to become a second Slim at this rate, I can only handle so many sleazy bones in this household.” Edge shook his head in disappointment.

“I am **not** turning into Slim.”

“Then what was that back there? Just a **stroke** of good luck?” Sans laughed, surprisingly the other two had joined in the laughing as well. Edge looked away, trying to hide the smile.  Stretch’s face started to glow even more than before, looking away to hide his embarrassment.

“So, uh, hun. How’d they grow?” I thought about it. How **did** they grow out? And why now of all times? I then remembered a conversation I had with my mother when I was young.

“Hm, I am not fully sure on this one, but, I remember my mother explaining how she got her scales on her cheeks,” The others perked up a bit, listening closely to what I have to say. Edge had an unreadable expression as he listened. “She said that grandmother and grandfather helped regulate her eyes, training and such. As she continued to use her powers more and more, scales started to grow on her face. But, before she could fully control them, grandfather… Left, leaving mother and grandmother by themselves at that home.” There was an uncomfortable silence between the five of us. The silence felt as if it went on forever, until Edge finally spoke up.

“So, you’re not entirely human after all,” The other three skeletons froze, remembering Edge was with us. The leather wearing monster stared at me with an unnerving stare, no scowl on his face, just staring. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he shook his head as he let out a sigh. “They knew there was something off about you, looking more closely at you now, your soul resonates much more like a monster’s than a human. Perhaps you’re less weak than I previously thought.” I blinked. That was not the statement I was expecting.

“Hey, uh, Edge. Could you not mention this to Paps and the others?” Sans and Stretch had empty eye sockets as they started to sweat quite heavily.

“I don’t think that is necessary. Those two were the ones who suggested she was special. Bratberry and I originally disagreed with their thoughts,” Sans’s eyes widened in surprise while Stretch remained emotionless at the statement. “ The two of you should stop treating your brothers as if they’re naïve, little children. Those two are adults now, I hardly think they would appreciate being treated like they weren’t.” Edge gave the two brothers a warning glare. Stretch started to tap the counter top with a fast tempo while Sans’s fist looked to be clenched rather tightly. The two looked as if they were about to burst at any moment, I need to think of something before anything bad happens!

“E-Edge!”

“What is it, half breed? Can’t you see that I am busy reprimanding their behavior?” Half breed?

“U-uhm, yes, but. There’s this fact I remember reading that I couldn’t wait t-to share with you.”

“Hm. Then make it quick.”

“A-astronomers were quite tired after watching the moon orbit Earth for twenty four hours, s-so, they called it **a day**!” There was a long silence after I attempted my joke. My eyes darted between the skeletons, trying to see if there was any change. Then, there was boisterous laughter coming from Sans and Stretch while Edge just screeched.

“Nyeh heh heh, good one hun.”

“Man, kid, that was Capri **_corny_ **us.”

“That is **it** , half breed! We are going on a date together tomorrow whether you like it or not! I cannot have you making terrible jokes like those lazy imbeciles!” The sweater wearing duo’s laughter quieted down when they heard Edge say the word ‘date’.

“D-date?”

“I-I mean a **platonic** date! I know there are many people who would love for me to even look their way! So be grateful I am asking you for any sort of time!” Edge’s face had gotten red as a strawberry while he scowled, attempting to hide his face away from me.

“O-okay. Thank you for asking me on a platonic date, mighty and terrible Edge.” Somehow, the dark skeleton’s whole skull had become red after I said that, even began to sputter a response. I… Still don’t quite know what a date is.

“Okay everyone, sorry for the-- what is this weird feeling in the air? This feels weirder than the time Ika tried to propose to Shita with a chocolate ring he got from the dollar store.” Tuffet had come back rolling on skates (did she have those before?), and looked between a blushing, frustrated Edge, two sweater wearing skeletons with an empty thousand yard stare at the table top, and a shrugging Aster.

“Edge asked Alice on a platonic date and as you can see, those two happened after.” Aster replied simply to which Tuffet just nodded with a bit of a smug smile. She handed us our orders and skated off to check up on the other patrons. W-wow, the square slice in front of me looked so pretty, each layer was a different shade of chocolate brown and was accompanied by white, vanilla cream at the very top. I take my fork and slowly cut myself a piece of the cake, admiring the slight bounce the piece had don when my fork reached the plate. I finally take a bite and… Oh goodness. The cake was absolute heaven! The cake itself was so cloudy, fluffy, and moist and the chocolate cream fillings was smooth and velvety, the cake practically melted in my mouth.

“Nyeh heh, you really like that, huh, honey?” I jolted up a bit, remembering everyone else was with me. I looked down at my-- Oh my god, I already finished the slice of cake. I could hear Aster let out a chuckle.

“It’s good to know my money certainly did not go to waste.” My face heated up, oh god, this is the most mortifying moment I’ve had yet. Soon after we finished our desserts, we paid, well, Aster and Edge paid their portion. Stretch said to add it to his tab, much to Tuffet’s annoyance. We dropped by the boutique to pick up the clothing and headed straight home, however, halfway to the house, Sans then received a call.

“Oh, hey Chara, what is it-- Yes, we got her clothes. I paid for it, I would know. Did I get her a _what?_ A br-- Oh. I forgot human gals need those things-- would you quit yelling? You’re getting way louder than how you usually are. Yes. Yes, I’ll go back and buy her those. Bye, Cha-- What. No, I’m not Red, I won’t get her something like that. Now go away.” Sans put is phone back in his pocket before letting out a defeated sigh.

“Is little miss momma worrying over her child?”

“Yes. I have to go back to that store and get her… Those things human girls need. I love… I love seeing my money drain away.”

“Would you just quit talking and just go already? ”

“Head home first, meet you guys there.” Sans just grumbled as he teleported back to that boutique, handing Stretch the bag of clothing. Once we arrived home, however, there were three unfamiliar skeleton monsters in front of the house entrance. One wore a colorful attire consisting of a hat, sweater and popped collar under shirt, and pack around his waist with “SWAG”, he also wore strange sunglasses that says “YOLO” on the lenses and had a gold tooth (Overall, it hurt to look at him, as mean as that sounds). Another skeleton had black bones but his leg bones were red, a red undershirt, a black hoodie and shorts, and something cyan was coming out of his red eye sockets. The final skeleton had what looks like black paint on his right cheek, he had a roughed up looking blue sweater wrapped around his waist, there an oversized an oversized brown scarf around his neck, ae also had a sash on his chest with vibrant vials attached to it, and he had a supersized brush on his back.

“Oh wonderful. We have to deal with them now of all days.” I heard Edge groan.

“Do you know--” The one with the large brush had noticed us and ran our way at lightning fast speed.

“Hey! You guys are finally back! I heard you guys got a new-- Oh my gosh, is that her? She’s so tiny!” I blushed as I hid behind Edge, the excited skeleton was jumping up and down so fast I could barely see him move but then, he suddenly made an abrupt stop and… He threw up. A large amount of black… Something. Actually, upon closer inspection, it looked to be black ink like the one that stained the monster’s cheek.

“OH MY GOD-- INK MUST YOU BE SO DISGUSTING.” Edge screeched as the skeleton emptied the contents of his stomach (?) in front of us.

“He’s always fucking disgusting.” The black and red monster had walked over to us with an exasperated sigh, like a mother with an energetic child. His voice was extremely distorted and there were words around him that said “ERROR” glitching as it followed his movements.

“Why’re you three here anyway? Some multiverse shenanigans going on or something?”

“Woah there Stretch man, my amigo. No need to to get all defensive, brosef. We were just visiting and heard our favorite alternate self found a little chickadee buddy and wanted to see her ourselves.” The colorful skeleton said with his glasses saying “CHILL OUT”. He lays his most likely empty eyes on me. Wait, alternate self?

“Well, lookit this dudette. Got a soul I’ve never seen before, pretty bright too.”

“M-my soul?”

“Yeah little chickadee, wanna see it yourself?” Edge then shifted his body to cover me up and started to scream at the monster, red faced.

“FRESH, YOU ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING MONGREL, YOU _CANNOT_ ASK HER SOMETHING SO LEWD!” The skeleton brought his hands up in defense but still had a wide amused smile.

“Woah there Edge man, just wanted to let her see her soul, ain’t nothing bad about that.”

“EVERYTHING IS WRONG ABOUT THAT!” The skeleton just shrugged.

“Hey, hey, what’s your name? I’m Ink and the grumpy skeleton here is Error!” Ink brought out a hand, he wore brown fingerless gloves, I hesitantly reached out to return the handshake. A familiar spark ran down my spine as I made contact with his hand.

“Yo, little dudette, every here calls me Fresh, nice to diggity dog meet ya!” The colorful skeleton pushes Ink out of the way and places an arm around my neck. I felt my cheeks flush at the close proximity and sparks.

“Hey, chickadee, you’re lookin’ a little nervous there.”

“It’s because you all keep putting your grubby hands all over her! Go away!” Edge then picks me up to keep me away from the new, touchy skeletons. I shuffled my face into the tallest skeleton’s chest to hide my embarrassment.

“Okay, okay I think you all embarrassed her quite enough. Edge, could you please put her down?” Said skeleton only grumbled as he placed me back on my feet, I then ran behind Aster and hid using his jacket “Alice, introduce yourself to the three new skeletons. I promise they don’t bite. Most of the time.” I peeked my head at the three, two of which had large smiles while Error looked away with a look of annoyance. I introduced myself to the three and then brought out a little handkerchief from my pocket.

“U-um, Ink was it? You have something on y-your face. He-here you go.” Ink looked at me with surprise as he accepted the handkerchief then giving a wide smile once more.

“Thanks! But, uh, where is that something?” I pointed at my cheek and he wiped at the wrong side, I tried to tell him where exactly the stain was but kept just barely missing it. I was getting a bit tired of the back and forth, so I decided to clean him myself. I gently took the hand that held the cloth in mine and moved it towards the ink on his cheek. Huh? That’s strange. It doesn’t seem to be coming off. I give my thumb a little lick and tried to rub the ink off with my thumb, to no avail.

“Half-breed! That’s absolutely unsanitary! You shouldn’t even be touching that excuse of a monster!”

“But, Edge--”

“It’s alright, thanks for trying though!” Ink then handed me the now blackened handkerchief, we then headed inside the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, sorry if fresh, ink, and error are ooc, I don't know too much about them and with fresh, I just dunno how to properly write the boy and his damn 90s slang
> 
> [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)


	17. IMPORTANT, NOT A NEW CHAPTER

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's my tumblr: [OwlsUndertaleTrash](http://owlsundertaletrash.tumblr.com)  
> I now have a twitter~: [NightOwlsTeaparty](https://twitter.com/DarknessHunter7)  
> If you want my NSFW twitter, you must send me a dm on twitter and **must** be 18+!!

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been updating this story as of late. Here's the thing, I'm not really proud of how this story is going and have been super unmotivated and depressed because of school.

 _But_ I do plan on Rewriting this story because honestly it's kind of important to me. But yeah. I'm going to rewrite the chapters once I'm done with my semester since I'm going to have more time that way.

Another note, since this story is on pause for now, so is Dragon Maid Liar Detector which may also be rewritten but still unsure.

Sorry again about this inconvenience. 


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